Dendritic cell vaccine shows promise against cervical cancer.(Ampligen)

2003 APR 3 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Vaccination with dendritic cells pulsed with tumor lysate and matured with a novel synthetic clinically nontoxic, double-stranded RNA analogue poly [I]:poly[C[subscript]12U] (Ampligen) induced a strong immune response against cervical cancer.

"Human papillomavirus (HPV) found in 99.7% of cervical cancers represents an attractive immunotherapeutic target for novel adjuvant dendritic cell (DC) immunotherapy. DCs primed with HPV antigens have been shown to be capable of inducing CTL responses powerful enough to eradicate established murine tumors expressing HPV16 antigen," researchers in Wales report.

"The use of tumor lysate has been found to be an effective means of priming DC with tumor associated antigens in animal models and in clinical trials leading to significant antitumor responses," said Malcolm Adams and collaborators at Velindre Hospital and the University of Wales. "Autologous DC primed with sonicated HPV expressing tumor lysate have been shown to be capable of inducing HPV specific classes I and II T-cell immunity in a pilot clinical study. Synthetic double stranded polyribonucleotides are effective in vitro activation/maturation agents capable of inducing a stable mature DC phenotype producing high levels of IL12. However, the prototype polymer poly [1]:poly [G] has proved to be clinically toxic."

The investigators stated, "Preliminary in vitro data have demonstrated that a novel clinically nontoxic analogue ...