Targeting Mutated Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor.
Abstract
This project is aimed at developing specific and effective vaccines for immunotherapy of breast cancer targeting mutated epidermal growth factor receptor (mEGF-R) in a rat model. During the first 2 years of funding, vaccines of mEGF-R (peptides, recombinant protein and viral vector) were produced and shown to induce humoral immunity to rat mEGF-R in rats. Furthermore, rat mammary carcinoma cells were transfected with rat mEGF-R cDNA to provide target cells for in vivo vaccinations. During the past (third) year of funding, our efforts to isolate transfectants expressing the mutated epitope were unsuccessful, presumably due to mutations in the rat mEGF-R vector. We have evaluated breast carcinoma patients' humoral and cellular immune responses to mEGF-R protein and peptides. Four of four patients tested had circulating antibodies that bound to mutated, but not normal, EGF-R protein. Neither of the 2 healthy donors' sera bound to mEGF-R. The peripheral blood lymphocytes of 2 of 5 breast cancer patients significantly proliferated to stimulation with mEGF-R protein and/or peptides. These data suggest that the mEGF-R epitope is immunogenic in breast cancer patients and, therefore, it should be possible to boost this immunity with mEGF-R vaccines.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 1999
- Accession Number
- ADA371315
Entities
People
- Dorothee M. Herlyn
Organizations
- University of Pennsylvania