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Olivier Faure,
Stéphanie Graff-Dubois,
Pedro M S Alves, Sébastien Cornet,
Marie-Thérèse Duffour,
Antonio Scardino,
David-Alexandre Gross,
Isabelle Miconnet,
Margarita Salcedo,
Salem Chouaib,
François A Lemonnier,
Jean-Pierre Abastado,
Kostas Kosmatopoulos
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ABSTRACT: The inducible heat shock protein Hsp70 has been described as a tumour antigen being frequently overexpressed in tumours of various histologic origins, with a role in tumourigenicity, as a critical event in tumour progression. A strategy to enhance the immune response to an antigen is the identification of multiple epitopes and the induction of a polyspecific response. Applied to tumour vaccination, such a polyspecific response should lead to a more robust antitumour efficacy. The long peptide Hsp70380-402 encompasses three nonamer peptides with a high affinity for HLA-A *0201. In a previous paper, we have shown that two of these nonamer peptides, p391 and p393, can raise CTL to recognize tumour cells overexpressing Hsp70. In the present paper, we demonstrate that the third nonamer peptide, p380, is a new epitope efficient in raising an antitumour immune response. The p380-402 polypeptide was able to induce an immune response against each of the three constituent epitopes both in vivo in HLA-A *0201 transgenic mice and in vitro with human PBMC. This polypeptide therefore constitutes an interesting candidate for the induction of multiple HLA-A *0201-restricted anti-Hsp70 antitumour CTL responses.
Oncology Reports 04/2007; 17(3):679-85. · 1.84 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: The use of synthetic peptides derived from tumor-associated Ags is attractive for the development of antitumoral vaccines as far as strong adjuvants are found to render them immunogenic. Here, we investigated the possibility to enhance the CD8 response against the human and mouse shared TERT(572Y) HLA-A*0201 restricted modified cryptic peptide by using ODN-CpG as adjuvant. Humanized transgenic mice were immunized with the TERT(572Y) modified cryptic peptide in the presence of ODN-CpG and compared to mice immunized in IFA. By contrast with IFA, we first showed that, in vivo, ODN-CpG leads to the recruitment of dendritic cells in the lymph nodes draining the injection site. Those cells and especially the CD11c+ CD11b- CD8a+ lymphoid and the CD11c+ B220+ plasmacytoid dendritic cells were activated as shown by up-regulation of CD40 at their cell surface. Immunization against TERT(572Y) peptide in the presence of ODN-CpG rather than IFA led to a strong CD8 response and can delayed mortality in an induced tumor model. Study of the CD8 response obtained after antigenic challenge suggested that a functional memory response is induced upon vaccination with ODN-CpG. Thus, MHC class I-restricted epitope in combination of ODN-CpG is a promising and rather simple cancer vaccine formulation.
Vaccine 04/2006; 24(11):1880-8. · 3.77 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: Polyspecific tumor vaccination should offer broad control of tumor cells and reduce the risk of emergence of immune escape variants. Here, we evaluated the capacity of a polypeptide composed of optimized cryptic peptides derived from three different universal tumor antigens (TERT988Y, HER-2/neu402Y and MAGE-A248V9) to induce a polyspecific CD8 cell response both in vivo in HHD mice and in vitro in humans. A mixture of TERT988Y, HER-2/neu402Y and MAGE-A248V9 peptides failed to induce a trispecific response. In contrast, a polypeptide composed of the three peptides stimulated a trispecific immune response. Interestingly, the capacity of the polypeptide to induce a trispecific response depended on its internal organization. Six different polypeptide variants corresponding to all possible combinations of the three peptides were tested. Only one variant, named Poly-6, elicited an immune response simultaneously targeting all three peptides.
Vaccine 04/2006; 24(12):2102-9. · 3.77 Impact Factor
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Olivier Faure,
Stéphanie Graff-Dubois,
Laurent Bretaudeau,
Laurent Derré,
David-Alexandre Gross,
Pedro M S Alves, Sébastien Cornet,
Marie-Thérèse Duffour,
Salem Chouaib,
Isabelle Miconnet,
Marc Grégoire,
Francine Jotereau,
François A Lemonnier,
Jean-Pierre Abastado,
Kostas Kosmatopoulos
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ABSTRACT: The design of a broad application tumor vaccine requires the identification of tumor antigens expressed in a majority of tumors of various origins. We questioned whether the major stress-inducible heat shock protein Hsp70 (also known as Hsp72), a protein frequently overexpressed in human tumors of various histological origins, but not in most physiological normal tissues, constitutes a tumor antigen. We selected the p391 and p393 peptides from the sequence of the human inducible Hsp70 that had a high affinity for HLA-A*0201. These peptides were able to trigger a CTL response in vivo in HLA-A*0201-transgenic HHD mice and in vitro in HLA-A*0201+ healthy donors. p391- and p393-specific human and murine CTL recognized human tumor cells overexpressing Hsp70 in a HLA-A*0201-restricted manner. Tetramer analysis of TILs showed that these Hsp70 epitopes are targets of an immune response in many HLA-A*0201+ breast cancer patients. Hsp70 is a tumor antigen and the Hsp70-derived peptides p391 and p393 could be used to raise a cytotoxic response against tumors of various origins.
International Journal of Cancer 04/2004; 108(6):863-70. · 5.44 Impact Factor
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David-Alexandre Gross,
Stéphanie Graff-Dubois,
Paule Opolon, Sébastien Cornet,
Pedro Alves,
Annelise Bennaceur-Griscelli,
Olivier Faure,
Philippe Guillaume,
Hüseyin Firat,
Salem Chouaib,
François A Lemonnier,
Jean Davoust,
Isabelle Miconnet,
Robert H Vonderheide,
Kostas Kosmatopoulos
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ABSTRACT: Most of the human tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) characterized thus far are derived from nonmutated "self"-proteins. Numerous strategies have been developed to break tolerance to TAAs, combining various forms of antigens with different vectors and adjuvants. However, no study has yet determined how to select epitopes within a given TAA to induce the highest antitumor effector response. We addressed this question by evaluating in HLA-A*0201-transgenic HHD mice the antitumor vaccination efficacy of high- and low-affinity epitopes from the naturally expressed murine telomerase reverse transcriptase (mTERT). Immunity against low-affinity epitopes was induced with heteroclitical variants. We show here that the CTL repertoire against high-affinity epitopes is partially tolerized, while that against low-affinity epitopes is composed of frequent CTLs with high avidity. The high-affinity p797 and p545 mTERT epitopes are not able to protect mice from a lethal challenge with the mTERT-expressing EL4-HHD tumor. In contrast, mice developing CTL responses against the p572 and p988 low-affinity epitopes exhibit potent antitumor immunity and no sign of autoimmune reactivity against TERT-expressing normal tissues. Our results strongly argue for new TAA epitope selection and modification strategies in antitumor immunotherapy applications in humans.
Journal of Clinical Investigation 03/2004; 113(3):425-33. · 15.39 Impact Factor
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ABSTRACT: EphA2 (Eck) is a tyrosine kinase receptor that is overexpressed in several human cancers such as breast, colon, lung, prostate, gastric carcinoma, and metastatic melanoma but not in nonmalignant counterparts. To validate EphA2 as a tumor antigen recognized by CD8+ T lymphocytes, we used reverse immunology approach to identify HLA-A*0201-restricted epitopes. Peptides bearing the HLA-A*0201-specific anchor motifs were analyzed for their capacity to bind and stabilize the HLA-A*0201 molecules. Two peptides, EphA2(58) and EphA2(550), with a high affinity for HLA-A*0201 were selected. Both peptides were immunogenic in the HLA-A*0201-transgenic HHD mice. Interestingly, peptide-specific murine CTLs cell lines responded to COS-7 cells coexpressing HLA-A*0201 and EphA2 and to EphA2-positive human tumor cells of various origin (renal cell, lung, and colon carcinoma and sarcoma). This demonstrates that EphA2(58) and EphA2(550) are naturally processed from endogenous EphA2. In addition, EphA2(58) and EphA2(550) stimulated specific CD8(+) T cells from healthy donor peripheral blood mononuclear cells. These T cells recognized EphA2-positive human tumor cells in an HLA-A*0201-restricted manner. Interestingly, EphA2-specific CD8+ T cells were detected in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells of prostate cancer patients. These results show for the first time that EphA2 is a tumor rejection antigen and lead us to propose EphA2(58) and EphA2(550) peptides for a broad-spectrum-tumor immunotherapy.
Cancer Research 01/2004; 63(23):8476-80. · 7.86 Impact Factor
