The Advantages of Multi-Epitope Tumor Antigens as an Approach to Treating Breast Cancer
Abstract
Dendritic cells (DC) are an integral part of the immune system's response to cancer. In preparation for treating breast cancer patients with DC, this proposal examines a fundamental issue that needs to be resolved before proceeding with this exciting new therapy. We hypothesized that the processing and presentation of multiple tumor antigen epitopes by DC is a more efficient and effective way of stimulating T cell responses than current HLA-restricted peptide-based methods. The goal of this proposal is to develop practical methods by which immune cells from patients with breast cancer can be used to promote effective anti-tumor responses. In the past year, we have continued investigations to compare the various antigen-arming methods. We have determined that T cells stimulated with apoptotic tumor-loaded DC show both tumor-peptide-specific reactivity (as assessed by MHC-HLA-A2-E75 tetramer staining), as well as enhanced responsiveness to Her-2 and other tumor antigens (as assessed by antigen-specific interferon-y production) . In addition, we have established that helper-dependent adenoviral vectors are a viable alternative to El-deleted adenoviral vectors for the expression of tumor antigens in DC. These research findings support our overall hypothesis, and the work accomplished this year has resulted in two abstracts and two manuscripts.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 01, 2002
- Accession Number
- ADA407499
Entities
People
- Syvia M. Kiertscher
Organizations
- University of California, Los Angeles