Open AccessB-cell epitope peptide cancer vaccines: a new paradigm for combination immunotherapies with novel checkpoint peptide vaccine
Author(s) -
Pravin T. P. Kaumaya
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
future oncology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.857
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1744-8301
pISSN - 1479-6694
DOI - 10.2217/fon-2020-0224
Subject(s) - epitope , peptide vaccine , medicine , immunotherapy , cancer immunotherapy , immunology , immunogenicity , monoclonal antibody , mimotope , antibody , cancer research , virology , immune system
In light of the numerous US FDA-approved humanized monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) for cancer immunotherapy, it is surprising that the advancement of B-cell epitope vaccines designed to elicit a natural humoral polyclonal antibody response has not gained traction in the immune-oncology landscape. Passive immunotherapy with humanized mAbs (Trastuzumab [Herceptin ® ]; Pertuzumab [Perjeta ® ]) has provided clinical benefit to breast cancer patients, albeit with significant shortcomings including toxicity problems and resistance, high costs, sophisticated therapeutic regimen and long half-life. The role of B-cell humoral immunity in cancer is under appreciated and underdeveloped. We have advanced the idea of active immunotherapy with chimeric B-cell epitope peptides incorporating a ‘promiscuous’ T-cell epitope that elicits a polyclonal antibody response, which provides safe, cost–effective therapeutic advantage over mAbs. We have created a portfolio of validated B-cell peptide epitopes against multiple receptor tyrosine kinases (HER-1, HER-3, IGF-1R and VEGF). We have successfully translated two HER-2 combination B-cell peptide vaccines in Phase I and II clinical trials. We have recently developed an effective novel programmed cell death-1 vaccine. In this article, I will review our approaches and strategies that focus on B-cell epitope cancer vaccines.