RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Short Peptide Vaccine Induces CD4<sup>+</sup> T Helper Cells in Patients with Different Solid Cancers
JF Cancer Immunology Research
JO Cancer Immunol Res
FD American Association for Cancer Research
SP 18
OP 25
DO 10.1158/2326-6066.CIR-15-0105
VO 4
IS 1
A1 Gross, Stefanie
A1 Lennerz, Volker
A1 Gallerani, Elisa
A1 Mach, Nicolas
A1 Böhm, Steffen
A1 Hess, Dagmar
A1 von Boehmer, Lotta
A1 Knuth, Alexander
A1 Ochsenbein, Adrian
A1 Gnad-Vogt, Ulrike
A1 Forssmann, Ulf
A1 Woelfel, Thomas
A1 Kaempgen, Eckhart
YR 2016
UL http://cancerimmunolres.aacrjournals.org/content/4/1/18.abstract
AB Previous cancer vaccination trials often aimed to activate CD8+ cytotoxic T-cell (CTL) responses with short (8–10mer) peptides and targeted CD4+ helper T cells (TH) with HLA class II–binding longer peptides (12–16 mer) that were derived from tumor antigens. Accordingly, a study of immunomonitoring focused on the detection of CTL responses to the short, and TH responses to the long, peptides. The possible induction of concurrent TH responses to short peptides was widely neglected. In a recent phase I vaccination trial, 53 patients with different solid cancers were vaccinated with EMD640744, a cocktail of five survivin-derived short (9- or 10-mer) peptides in Montanide ISA 51VG. We monitored 49 patients and found strong CD8+ T-cell responses in 63% of the patients. In addition, we unexpectedly found CD4+ TH cell responses against at least two of the five short peptides in 61% (23/38) of the patients analyzed. The two peptides were recognized by HLA-DP4– and HLA-DR–restricted TH1 cells. Some short peptide–reactive (sp)CD4 T cells showed high functional avidity. Here, we show that a short peptide vaccine is able to activate a specific CD4+ T-cell repertoire in many patients, facilitating a strong combined CD4+/CD8+ T-cell response. Cancer Immunol Res; 4(1); 18–25. ©2015 AACR.