Placenta-derived gp96 as a multivalent prophylactic cancer vaccine

• DOI: 10.1038/srep01947
• Publication Date: 2013-06-06T09:08:32Z
• Authors: Bao Zhao; Yanzhong Wang; Bo Wu; Shan Liu; Erjie Wu; HongXia Fan; MingMing Gui; Lizhao Chen; Changfei Li; Ying Ju; Wei Zhang; Songdong Meng
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; Placenta; Dendritic Cells; Adoptive Transfer; Cancer Vaccines; Article; Rats; Tumor Burden; 3. Good health; Disease Models, Animal; Mice; 03 medical and health sciences; Antigens, Neoplasm; Pregnancy; T-Lymphocyte Subsets; Cell Line, Tumor; Neoplasms; Animals; Humans; Female; Protein Binding

A major challenge for designing prophylactic cancer vaccines is to define immunogenic and safe cancer antigens. Given the striking similarity of antigen expression patterns between cancer and embryonic tissues, we defined a prototype strategy of using placenta-derived heat shock protein gp96, which induces prophylactic anti-tumor T cell responses. Immunization with placental gp96 provided partial protection and long-term (at least 3 months) anti-tumor immunity against growth of transplantable melanoma or breast tumors in mice, elicited total protection against 7, 12-dimethylbenz(a)-anthracene (DMBA)-induced mammary tumors in rats, and significantly reduced the occurrence and growth of autochthonous breast tumors in HER2 transgenic mice. Placental gp96 activated HER2- and MUC1-specific T cell responses through binding to tumor-associated antigens. Our results reveal the novel immunogenicity of placental gp96 and its potential use as a multivalent cancer vaccine.