Two tandem repeats of mHSP70407-426 enhance therapeutic antitumor effects of a recombined vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) protein vaccine

Serum HSP70 and VEGF Levels Are Effective Predictive Factors of Chemoradiosensitivity and Prognosis of Pancreatic Cancer Patients

AIM

The study is to evaluate serum HSP70 and VEGF for predicting the chemoradiosensitivity of the pancreatic cancer patients.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

255 pancreatic cancer patients and 60 healthy subjects were measured for serum HSP70 and VEGF using ELISA for the pretreatment, during treatment, and postchemoradiotherapy timepoints.

RESULTS

The serum HSP70 and VEGF were found to be elevated in pancreatic cancer patients as compared to healthy subjects. After chemoradiotherapy treatment, 179 patients showed effective clinical response while 76 patients showed ineffective clinical response. Serum HSP70 and VEGF were higher during chemoradiotherapy, and lower posttreatment in the effective group. However, serum HSP70 and VEGF were higher during and after treatment in the ineffective group. At any given timepoint, serum HSP70 and VEGF were higher in the ineffective group compared with the effective group. The overall survival and progression-free survival trends were as follows: HSP70 High /VEGF High < HSP70 High /VEGF Low or HSP70 Low /VEGF High < HSP70 Low /VEGF Low . Serum HSP70 and VEGF were individually effective, and their combination was even more effective in predicting the chemoradiosensitivity of pancreatic cancer patients. HSP70 and VEGF were independent risk factors for overall survival and progression-free survival of pancreatic cancer patients.

CONCLUSIONS

Low levels of serum HSP70 and VEGF were associated with improved radiosensitivity and better prognosis of pancreatic cancer patients.

In Silico Design of a Novel Multi-Epitope Peptide Vaccine Against Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Background:

Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) is a prevalent cancer in the world. As yet, there is no medication for complete treatment of HCC.

Objective:

There is a critical need to search for an innovative therapy for HCC. Recently, multiepitope vaccines have been introduced as effective immunotherapy approach against HCC.

Methods:

In this research, several immunoinformatics methods were applied to create an original multi-epitope vaccine against HCC consisting of CD8+ cytolytic T lymphocytes (CTLs) epitopes selected from α- fetoprotein (AFP), glypican-3 (GPC3), aspartyl-β-hydroxylase (ASPH); CD4+ helper T lymphocytes (HTLs) epitopes from tetanus toxin fragment C (TTFC), and finally, two tandem repeats of HSP70407-426 were used which stimulated strong innate and adaptive immune responses. All the mentioned parts were connected together by relevant linkers.

Results:

According to physicochemical, structural, and immunological results, the designed vaccine is stable, non-allergen, antigen; it also has a high-quality 3D structure, and numerous linear and conformational B cell epitopes, whereby this vaccine may stimulate efficient humoral immunity.

Conclusion:

Center on the collected results, the designed vaccine potentially can induce cellular and humoral immune responses in HCC cases; nonetheless, the efficiency of vaccine must be approved within in vitro and in vivo immunological analyzes.

Low-dose docetaxel enhances the anti-tumour efficacy of a human umbilical vein endothelial cell vaccine

Our previous studies have indicated that human umbilical vein endothelial cell (HUVEC) vaccination appears to be a potentially promising anti-angiogenesis therapy, but the modest therapeutic anti-tumour efficiency limits its clinical use. This highlights the importance of identifying more potent therapeutic HUVEC vaccine strategies for clinical testing. In the present study, the immune-modulating doses of docetaxel (DOC) was combined with 1 × 10⁶ viable HUVECs as a means to enhance the therapeutic anti-tumour efficiency of the HUVEC vaccine. Our results demonstrated that 5 mg/kg DOC administrated prior to HUVEC vaccine could most effectively assist HUVEC vaccine to display a remarkable suppression of tumour growth and metastasis as wells as a prolongation of survival time in a therapeutic procedure. CD31 immunohistochemical analysis of the excised tumours confirmed a significant reduction in vessel density after treatment with the HUVEC vaccine with 5 mg/kg DOC. Additionally, an increased HUVEC-specific antibody level, activated CTLs and an elevated IFN-γ level in cultured splenocytes were revealed after treatment with HUVEC vaccine with 5 mg/kg DOC. Finally, 5 mg/kg DOC coupled with the HUVEC vaccine led to induction of significant increases in CD8⁺T cells and decrease in Tregs in the tumour microenvironment. Taken together, all the results verified that 5 mg/kg DOC could assist HUVEC vaccine to elicit strong HUVEC specific humoral and cellular responses, which could facilitate the HUVEC vaccine-mediated inhibition of cancer growth and metastasis. These findings provide the immunological rationale for the combined use of immune-modulating doses of DOC and HUVEC vaccines in patients with cancer.