Register for free to
view the full innovation profile.
Vaccines targeting the E7 protein appear to be a promising approach to prevent and/or treat HPV-associated cervical malignancies.
About
Description: Human papillomaviruses, particularly HPV-16, are associated with most cervical cancers and their precursors. E7 is an oncogenic HPV protein that is expressed in most HPV-positive cervical carcinomas and plays an important role in the initiation and maintenance of cellular transformation. Accordingly, vaccines targeting the E7 protein appear to be a promising approach to prevent and/or treat HPV-associated cervical malignancies. Features: Johns Hopkins researchers have generated the HPV-16 E7-specific CD8+ T cell line by vaccinating six week old female C57BL/6 (H-2Db) mice with 107 p.f.u. of Sig/E7/LAMP-1 vaccinia virus through intraperitoneal injection, a vaccine virus that contains and encodes the HPV-E7 protein. The resulted splenocytes were harvested, stimulated with autologous irradiated splenocytes pulsed with HPV-16 E7 peptide (amino acid 49-57), and sorted for E7-specificity and CD8 expression. The resulted E7-specific CD8+ T cell recognizes the HPV-E7 epitope (amino acid 49-57). These T cells can be used to assess HPV-16 E7 processing and presentation by the DCs and to be used to assess the efficacy of adoptive T cell transfer against HPV-E7 expressing tumors in preclinical studies. Stage of development: E7 peptide (aa 49-57)-specific CD8+ T cells were characterized by determining the ability of T cells to kill HPV-16 E6 (aa 48-57) peptide-pulsed EL-4 cells and by staining for CD8. Disease: Cancer, infectious diseases Inventors: Biophysics, A & S; Oncology, School of Medicine PI: T.C. Wu, M.D., Ph.D.