Melanoma Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Melanoma, including details on identification, causes, prevention, treatment.

Immuno-gene therapy of melanoma by tumor antigen epitope modified IFN-gamma.

He X, Luo P, Tsang TC, Zhang T, Harris DT

Gene Therapy Group, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Arizona Health Sciences Center, University of Arizona, Tucson, 245049, AZ 85724, USA.

Cytokine-based vaccines play a major part in tumor immuno-gene therapy. However, down-regulated antigen expression on tumor cells may diminish the immuno-potentiating aspects of cellular vaccines. In this study, we coexpressed a tumor antigen epitope with IFN-gamma in the same gene by replacing the IFN-gamma signal peptide with an antigen epitope-expressing signal peptide. We then investigated the effect of the antigen epitope-incorporated IFN-gamma on the immunotherapy of murine melanoma B16 tumors. Results showed that TRP-2 epitope-expressing IFN-gamma decreased B16 tumorigenicity and enhanced its immunogenicity after gene transfer. Protective immunity against wild type B16 tumors was induced by vaccination with IFN-gamma transiently gene-modified tumor cells. These data suggest that cellular vaccines engineered to express an antigen epitope within an immunostimulatory cytokine could potentiate the immunization effect.

Published 12 July 2005 in Cancer Immunol Immunother, 54(8): 741-9.
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