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Cluster intradermal DNA vaccination rapidly induces E7-specific CD8+ T-cell immune responses leading to therapeutic antitumor effects

Gene Therapy volume 15, pages 1156–1166 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Intradermal administration of DNA vaccines via a gene gun represents a feasible strategy to deliver DNA directly into the professional antigen-presenting cells (APCs) in the skin. This helps to facilitate the enhancement of DNA vaccine potency via strategies that modify the properties of APCs. We have previously demonstrated that DNA vaccines encoding human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV-16) E7 antigen linked to calreticulin (CRT) are capable of enhancing the E7-specific CD8+ T-cell immune responses and antitumor effects against E7-expressing tumors. It has also been shown that cluster (short-interval) DNA vaccination regimen generates potent immune responses in a minimal time frame. Thus, in the current study we hypothesize that the cluster intradermal CRT/E7 DNA vaccination will generate significant antigen-specific CD8+ T-cell infiltrates in E7-expressing tumors in tumor-bearing mice, leading to an increase in apoptotic tumor cell death. We found that cluster intradermal CRT/E7 DNA vaccination is capable of rapidly generating a significant number of E7-specific CD8+ T cells, resulting in significant therapeutic antitumor effects in vaccinated mice. We also observed that cluster intradermal CRT/E7 DNA vaccination in the presence of tumor generates significantly higher E7-specific CD8+ T-cell immune responses in the systemic circulation as well as in the tumors. In addition, this vaccination regimen also led to significantly lower levels of CD4+Foxp3+ T-regulatory cells and myeloid suppressor cells compared to vaccination with CRT DNA in peripheral blood and in tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes, resulting in an increase in apoptotic tumor cell death. Thus, our study has significant potential for future clinical translation.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute and National Cancer Institute SPORE in Cervical Cancer P50 CA098252 and the 1 RO1 CA114425-01.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, MD, USA

    S Peng, C Trimble, Z Lin, A Monie, C-F Hung & T-C Wu

  2. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, MD, USA

    C Trimble & T-C Wu

  3. Department of Oncology, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, MD, USA

    C Trimble, C-F Hung & T-C Wu

  4. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Division of Gynecologic Oncology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA

    R D Alvarez & W K Huh

  5. Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, MD, USA

    T-C Wu

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  1. S Peng
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Correspondence to T-C Wu.

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Supplementary Information accompanies the paper on Gene Therapy website (http://www.nature.com/gt)

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Peng, S., Trimble, C., Alvarez, R. et al. Cluster intradermal DNA vaccination rapidly induces E7-specific CD8+ T-cell immune responses leading to therapeutic antitumor effects. Gene Ther 15, 1156–1166 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/gt.2008.53

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/gt.2008.53

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