Induction of Peptide-specific CTL Activity and Inhibition of Tumor Growth Following Immunization with Nanoparticles Coated with Tumor Peptide-MHC-I Complexes

김상현,Park Ha-Eun,Jeong Seong-Un,Moon Jun-Hyeok,이영란,김정기,공현석,박찬수,이종길 대한면역학회 2021 Immune Network Vol.21 No.6

Tumor peptides associated with MHC class I molecules or their synthetic variants have attracted great attention for their potential use as vaccines to induce tumor-specific CTLs. However, the outcome of clinical trials of peptide-based tumor vaccines has been disappointing. There are various reasons for this lack of success, such as difficulties in delivering the peptides specifically to professional Ag-presenting cells, short peptide half-life in vivo, and limited peptide immunogenicity. We report here a novel peptide vaccination strategy that efficiently induces peptide-specific CTLs. Nanoparticles (NPs) were fabricated from a biodegradable polymer, poly(D,L-lactic-co-glycolic acid), attached to H-2Kb molecules, and then the natural peptide epitopes associated with the H-2Kb molecules were exchanged with a model tumor peptide, SIINFEKL (OVA257-268). These NPs were efficiently phagocytosed by immature dendritic cells (DCs), inducing DC maturation and activation. In addition, the DCs that phagocytosed SIINFEKL-pulsed NPs potently activated SIINFEKL-H-2Kb complex-specific CD8+ T cells via cross-presentation of SIINFEKL. In vivo studies showed that intravenous administration of SIINFEKL-pulsed NPs effectively generated SIINFEKL-specific CD8+ T cells in both normal and tumor-bearing mice. Furthermore, intravenous administration of SIINFEKL-pulsed NPs into EG7.OVA tumor-bearing mice almost completely inhibited the tumor growth. These results demonstrate that vaccination with polymeric NPs coated with tumor peptide-MHC-I complexes is a novel strategy for efficient induction of tumor-specific CTLs.

BMB Reports : Therapeutic effect of a TM4SF5-specific peptide vaccine against colon cancer in a mouse model

( Sanghoon Kwon ),( Young Eun Kim ),( Jeong A Park ),( Doo Sik Kim ),( Hyung Joo Kwon ),( Younghee Lee ) 생화학분자생물학회(구 한국생화학분자생물학회) 2014 BMB Reports Vol.47 No.4

Molecular-targeted therapy has gained attention because of its high efficacy and weak side effects. Previously, we confirmed that transmembrane 4 superfamily member 5 protein (TM4SF5) can serve as a molecular target to prevent or treat hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We recently extended the application of the peptide vaccine, composed of CpG-DNA, liposome complex, and TM4SF5 peptide, to prevent colon cancer in a mouse model. Here, we first implanted mice with mouse colon cancer cells and then checked therapeutic effects of the vaccine against tumor growth. Immunization with the peptide vaccine resulted in robust production of TM4SF5-specific antibodies, alleviated tumor growth, and reduced survival rate of the tumor-bearing mice. We also found that serum levels of VEGF were markedly reduced in the mice immunized with the peptide vaccine. Therefore, we suggest that the TM4SF5-specific peptide vaccine has a therapeutic effect against colon cancer in a mouse model. [BMB Reports 2014; 47(4): 215-220]

Deep convolutional neural networks for pan-specific peptide-MHC class I binding prediction

Han, Youngmahn,Kim, Dongsup BioMed Central 2017 BMC bioinformatics Vol.18 No.1

<P><B>Background</B></P><P>Computational scanning of peptide candidates that bind to a specific major histocompatibility complex (MHC) can speed up the peptide-based vaccine development process and therefore various methods are being actively developed. Recently, machine-learning-based methods have generated successful results by training large amounts of experimental data. However, many machine learning-based methods are generally less sensitive in recognizing locally-clustered interactions, which can synergistically stabilize peptide binding. Deep convolutional neural network (DCNN) is a deep learning method inspired by visual recognition process of animal brain and it is known to be able to capture meaningful local patterns from 2D images. Once the peptide-MHC interactions can be encoded into image-like array(ILA) data, DCNN can be employed to build a predictive model for peptide-MHC binding prediction. In this study, we demonstrated that DCNN is able to not only reliably predict peptide-MHC binding, but also sensitively detect locally-clustered interactions.</P><P><B>Results</B></P><P>Nonapeptide-HLA-A and -B binding data were encoded into ILA data. A DCNN, as a pan-specific prediction model, was trained on the ILA data. The DCNN showed higher performance than other prediction tools for the latest benchmark datasets, which consist of 43 datasets for 15 HLA-A alleles and 25 datasets for 10 HLA-B alleles. In particular, the DCNN outperformed other tools for alleles belonging to the HLA-A3 supertype. The F1 scores of the DCNN were 0.86, 0.94, and 0.67 for HLA-A*31:01, HLA-A*03:01, and HLA-A*68:01 alleles, respectively, which were significantly higher than those of other tools. We found that the DCNN was able to recognize locally-clustered interactions that could synergistically stabilize peptide binding. We developed ConvMHC, a web server to provide user-friendly web interfaces for peptide-MHC class I binding predictions using the DCNN. ConvMHC web server can be accessible via http://jumong.kaist.ac.kr:8080/convmhc.</P><P><B>Conclusions</B></P><P>We developed a novel method for peptide-HLA-I binding predictions using DCNN trained on ILA data that encode peptide binding data and demonstrated the reliable performance of the DCNN in nonapeptide binding predictions through the independent evaluation on the latest IEDB benchmark datasets. Our approaches can be applied to characterize locally-clustered patterns in molecular interactions, such as protein/DNA, protein/RNA, and drug/protein interactions.</P><P><B>Electronic supplementary material</B></P><P>The online version of this article (10.1186/s12859-017-1997-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.</P>

An optimized peptide vaccine strategy capable of inducing multivalent CD8 ⁺ T cell responses with potent antitumor effects

Cho, Hyun-Il,Jung, Soo-Hyun,Sohn, Hyun-Jung,Celis, Esteban,Kim, Tai-Gyu TaylorFrancis 2015 Oncoimmunology Vol.4 No.11

<P>Therapeutic cancer vaccines are an attractive alternative to conventional therapies for treating malignant tumors, and successful tumor eradication depends primarily on obtaining high numbers of long-lasting tumor-reactive CD8<SUP>+</SUP> T cells. Dendritic cell (DC)-based vaccines constitute a promising approach for treating cancer, but in most instances low immune responses and suboptimal therapeutic effects are achieved indicating that further optimization is required. We describe here a novel vaccination strategy with peptide-loaded DCs followed by a mixture of synthetic peptides, polyinosine-polycytidylic acid (poly-IC) and anti-CD40 antibodies (TriVax) for improving the immunogenicity and therapeutic efficacy of DC-based vaccines in a melanoma mouse model. TriVax immunization 7–12 d after priming with antigen-loaded DCs generated large numbers of long-lasting multiple antigen-specific CD8<SUP>+</SUP> T cells capable of recognizing tumor cells. These responses were far superior to those generated by homologous immunizations with either TriVax or DCs. CD8<SUP>+</SUP> T cells but not CD4<SUP>+</SUP> T cells or NK cells mediated the therapeutic efficacy of this heterologous prime-boost strategy. Moreover, combinations of this vaccination regimen with programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) blockade or IL2 anti-IL2 antibody complexes led to complete disease eradication and survival enhancement in melanoma-bearing mice. The overall results suggest that similar strategies would be applicable for the design of effective therapeutic vaccination for treating viral diseases and various cancers, which may circumvent current limitations of cell-based cancer vaccines.</P>

펩타이드-운반체 결합체의 백신으로서의 효과 : B형 간염바이러스 표면항원의 PreS2 부위에 대한 연구 Studies on the PreS2 region of the Hepatitis B Virus Surface Antigen

이명규,김길룡,함경수 大韓免疫學會 1995 大韓免疫學會誌 Vol.17 No.3

Synthetic peptides were conjugated with a carrier protein (bovine serum albumin; BSA), and the peptide-protein conjugates were immunized to Balb/c mice. When the anti-preS2 titers de-creased, the recombinant hepatitis B virus surface antigen with the large amounts of the middle protein (M-rHBsAg) were injected. The anti-preS2 titers of many mice (14/17) gradually in-creased from 2 to 4 week after M-rHBsAg injection. Among them, the anti-preS2 titers of 5 mice increased 90 fold or more at 4 week after M-rHBsAg injection. The boosting effects were also found when the anti-M-rHBsAg titers were measured. But the anti-BSA titers were not affected by M-rHBsAg injection. However, no relationships between the observed increase of the anti-preS2 antibodies by injecting M-rHBsAg and the presence of the known preS2 T cell epitopes were found. The results suggest that the peptide-protein conjugates can be used for peptide vaccine development.

Mucosal vaccination of conserved sM2, HA2 and cholera toxin subunit A1 (CTA1) fusion protein with poly gamma-glutamate/chitosan nanoparticles (PC NPs) induces protection against divergent influenza subtypes

Chowdhury, Mohammed Y.E.,Kim, Tae-Hwan,Uddin, Md Bashir,Kim, Jae-Hoon,Hewawaduge, C.Y.,Ferdowshi, Zannatul,Sung, Moon-Hee,Kim, Chul-Joong,Lee, Jong-Soo Elsevier 2017 Veterinary microbiology Vol.201 No.-

<P><B>Abstract</B></P> <P>To develop a safe and effective mucosal vaccine that broad cross protection against seasonal or emerging influenza A viruses, we generated a mucosal influenza vaccine system combining the highly conserved matrix protein-2 (sM2), fusion peptide of hemagglutinin (HA<SUB>2</SUB>), the well-known mucosal adjuvant cholera toxin subunit A1 (CTA1) and poly-γ-glutamic acid (γ-PGA)-chitosan nanoparticles (PC NPs), which are safe, natural materials that are able to target the mucosal membrane as a mucosal adjuvant. The mucosal administration of sM2HA2CTA1/PC NPs could induce a high degree of systemic immunity (IgG and IgA) at the site of inoculation as well as at remote locations and also significantly increase the levels of sM2- or HA2-specific cell-mediated immune response. In challenge tests in BALB/c mice with 10 MLD<SUB>50</SUB> of A/EM/Korea/W149/06(H5N1), A/Puerto Rico/8/34(H1N1), A/Aquatic bird/Korea/W81/2005(H5N2), A/Aquatic bird/Korea/W44/2005 (H7N3) or A/Chicken/Korea/116/2004(H9N2) viruses, the recombinant sM2HA2CTA1/PC NPs provided cross protection against divergent lethal influenza subtypes and also the protection was maintained up to six months after vaccination. Thus, sM2HA2CTA1/PC NPs could be a promising strategy for a universal influenza vaccine.</P> <P><B>Highlights</B></P> <P> <UL> <LI> Construction of poly-γ-glutamic acid (γ-PGA)-chitosan nanoparticles (PC NPs) containing conserved antigens of Influenza virus and mucosal adjuvant cholera toxin subunit A1 (CTA1) as a safe and effective mucosal vaccine against emerging influenza A viruses. </LI> <LI> The mucosal administration of sM2HA2CTA1/PC NPs could induce a high degree of systemic, mucosal and cell-mediated immune response. </LI> <LI> Induced immune responses could protect mice against 10MLD<SUB>50</SUB> of divergent influenza subtypes. </LI> <LI> The immune response and efficacy of protection was maintained up to six months after final inoculation. </LI> </UL> </P>

Humanized mouse model for vaccine evaluation: an overview

Kaushik Shivani,Kumari Lata,Deepak Rakesh Kumar 대한백신학회 2024 Clinical and Experimental Vaccine Research Vol.13 No.1

Animal models are essential in medical research for testing drugs and vaccines. These models differ from humans in various respects, so their results are not directly translatable in humans. To address this issue, humanized mice engrafted with functional human cells or tissue can be helpful. We propose using humanized mice that support the engraftment of human hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) without irradiation to evaluate vaccines that influence patient immunity. For infectious diseases, several types of antigens and adjuvants have been developed and evaluated for vaccination. Peptide vaccines are generally used for their capability to fight cancer and infectious diseases. Evaluation of adjuvants is necessary as they induce inflammation, which is effective for an enhanced immune response but causes adverse effects in some individuals. A trial can be done on humanized mice to check the immunogenicity of a particular adjuvant and peptide combination. Messenger RNA has also emerged as a potential vaccine against viruses. These vaccines need to be tested with human immune cells because they work by producing a particular peptide of the pathogen. Humanized mice with human HSCs that can produce both myeloid and lymphoid cells show a similar immune response that these vaccines will produce in a patient.

A novel M2e-multiple antigenic peptide providing heterologous protection in mice

Feng Wen,Ji-Hong Ma,Hai Yu,Fu-Ru Yang,Meng Huang,Yan-Jun Zhou,Ze-Jun Li,Xiu-Hui Wang,Guo-Xin Li,Yi-Feng Jiang,Wu Tong,Guangzhi Tong 대한수의학회 2016 Journal of Veterinary Science Vol.17 No.1

Swine influenza viruses (SwIVs) cause considerable morbidity and mortality in domestic pigs, resulting in a significant economic burden. Moreover, pigs have been considered to be a possible mixing vessel in which novel strains loom. Here, we developed and evaluated a novel M2e-multiple antigenic peptide (M2e-MAP) as a supplemental antigen for inactivated H3N2 vaccine to provide cross-protection against two main subtypes of SwIVs, H1N1 and H3N2. The novel tetra-branched MAP was constructed by fusing four copies of M2e to one copy of foreign T helper cell epitopes. A high-yield reassortant H3N2 virus was generated by plasmid based reverse genetics. The efficacy of the novel H3N2 inactivated vaccines with or without M2e-MAP supplementation was evaluated in a mouse model. M2e-MAP conjugated vaccine induced strong antibody responses in mice. Complete protection against the heterologous swine H1N1 virus was observed in mice vaccinated with M2e-MAP combined vaccine. Moreover, this novel peptide confers protection against lethal challenge of A/Puerto Rico/8/34 (H1N1). Taken together, our results suggest the combined immunization of reassortant inactivated H3N2 vaccine and the novel M2e-MAP provided cross-protection against swine and human viruses and may serve as a promising approach for influenza vaccine development.

In silico Design of Discontinuous Peptides Representative of B and T-cell Epitopes from HER2-ECD as Potential Novel Cancer Peptide Vaccines

Manijeh, Mahdavi,Mehrnaz, Keyhanfar,Violaine, Moreau,Hassan, Mohabatkar,Abbas, Jafarian,Mohammad, Rabbani Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention 2013 Asian Pacific journal of cancer prevention Vol.14 No.10

At present, the most common cause of cancer-related death in women is breast cancer. In a large proportion of breast cancers, there is the overexpression of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). This receptor is a 185 KDa growth factor glycoprotein, also known as the first tumor-associated antigen for different types of breast cancers. Moreover, HER2 is an appropriate cell-surface specific antigen for passive immunotherapy, which relies on the repeated application of monoclonal antibodies that are transferred to the patient. However, vaccination is preferable because it would stimulate a patient's own immune system to actively respond to a disease. In the current study, several bioinformatics tools were used for designing synthetic peptide vaccines. PEPOP was used to predict peptides from HER2 ECD subdomain III in the form of discontinuous-continuous B-cell epitopes. Then, T-cell epitope prediction web servers MHCPred, SYFPEITHI, HLA peptide motif search, Propred, and SVMHC were used to identify class-I and II MHC peptides. In this way, PEPOP selected 12 discontinuous peptides from the 3D structure of the HER2 ECD subdomain III. Furthermore, T-cell epitope prediction analyses identified four peptides containing the segments 77 (384-391) and 99 (495-503) for both B and T-cell epitopes. This work is the only study to our knowledge focusing on design of in silico potential novel cancer peptide vaccines of the HER2 ECD subdomain III that contain epitopes for both B and T-cells. These findings based on bioinformatics analyses may be used in vaccine design and cancer therapy; saving time and minimizing the number of tests needed to select the best possible epitopes.

Active Immunization Study of Colon Cancer Derived 1-8D Peptide in HHD Mice

Jung, Hun-Soon,Ahn, In-Sook,Do, Hyung-Ki,Lemonnier, Francois A.,Song, Kuk-Hyun,Do, Myoung-Sool The Korean Association of Immunobiologists 2005 Immune Network Vol.5 No.3

Background: 1-8D gene is a member of human 1-8 interferon inducible gene family and was shown to be overexpressed in fresh colon cancer tissues. Three peptides 1-6, 3-5 and 3-7 derived from human 1-8D gene were shown to have immunogenicity against colon cancer. Methods: To study tumor immunotherapy, of three peptides we established an active immunization model using HHD mice. $D^{b-/-}{\times}{\beta}2$ microglobulin $({\beta}2m)$ null mice transgenic for a chimeric HLA-$A2.1/D^{b-}\;{\beta}2m$ single chain (HHD mice) were challenged with B16/HHD/1-8D tumor cells and were immunized with irradiated peptide-loaded RMA- S/HHD/B7.1 transfectants. In therapy model tumor growth was retarded in HHD mice that were injected with 3-5 peptide-loaded RMA-S/HHD/B7.1. In survival test vaccination with 1-8D-derived peptide protects HHD mice from tumor progression after tumor challenge. Results: These studies show that peptide 3-5 derived from 1-8D gene can be the most effective candidate for the vaccine of immunotherapy against colon cancer and highlight 1-8D gene as putative colon carcinoma associated antigens. Conclusion: We demonstrated that RMA-S/HHD/ B7.1 loaded with 1-8D peptides, especially 3-5, immunization generates potent antitumor immunity against tumor cells in HHD mice and designed active immunization as proper immunotherapeutic protocols.