Protein vaccines induce protective and therapeutic antitumor responses.

2003 SEP 17 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- HER-2 DNA and protein vaccines containing potent Th cell epitopes induce distinct protective and therapeutic antitumor responses in HER-2 transgenic mice.

According to recent research from Denmark, "Overexpression of the growth factor receptor HER-2 (c-erbB-2, neu) has transforming potential and occurs in approximately 20-30% of breast and ovarian cancers. HER-2 is a self antigen, but antibodies and T cells specific for HER-2 have been isolated from cancer patients, suggesting HER-2 may be a good target for active immunotherapy."

"We constructed rat HER-2 DNA and protein vaccines containing potent Th cell epitopes derived from tetanus toxin and studied their potency in two strains of mice transgenic for the rat HER-2 molecule," reported Valery Renard and colleagues at Pharmexa AS. "Vaccination with HER-2 DNA protected nontransgenic mice from tumor challenge, but induced only moderate protection in one of the tumor models. However, vaccination with the modified HER-2 protein resulted in almost complete protection from tumor challenge in both tumor models. This protection could be mediated by antibodies alone. In addition, ...