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Cancer

Steps towards a prophylactic breast cancer vaccine

Nature Reviews Drug Discovery volume 9, pages 594–595 (2010)Cite this article

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To test whether the vaccination with α-lactalbumin could induce an immune response, female mice were immunized with a single dose of recombinant α-lactalbumin mixed with complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA), or were given CFA alone. Non-lactating mice and mice immunized with CFA alone did not show any signs of autoimmunity, whereas lactating mice immunized with α-lactalbumin developed breast failure, defined as being unable to feed their pups.

The vaccine was then tested in mouse mammary tumour virus (MMTV)-neu mice, which spontaneously develop mammary tumours. At 8 weeks of age mice were immunized with a single dose of α-lactalbumin plus CFA or given CFA alone. Whereas all CFA-only control mice developed breast tumours by the age of 10 months, none of the α-lactalbumin immunized mice had detectable tumours. Prophylactic vaccination was also shown to be effective against transplantable tumours in wild-type mice, in which immunization 13 days before tumour cell inoculation resulted in significant tumour growth retardation.

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. Jaini, R. et al. An autoimmune-mediated strategy for prophylactic breast cancer vaccination. Nature Med. 16, 799–803 (2010)

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Authors
  1. Alexandra Flemming
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Flemming, A. Steps towards a prophylactic breast cancer vaccine. Nat Rev Drug Discov 9, 594–595 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd3233

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