Recombinant Modified Vaccinia Virus Ankara (MVA) Expressing Wild-Type Human p53 Induces Specific Antitumor CTL Expansion

Abstract

The p53 gene product is an attractive target for tumor immunotherapy. The present study aims to understand the potential of MVAp53 vaccine to induce expansion of p53-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte ex vivo in cancer patients. The result indicated that 14 of 23 cancer patients demonstrated p53-specific IFN-γ production, degranulation, cell proliferation, and lysis of p53 overexpressed human tumor cell lines. These experiments show that MVAp53 stimulation has the potential to induce the expansion of p53-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte from the memory T cell repertoire. The data suggest that MVAp53 vaccine is an ideal candidate for cancer immunotherapy.

Keywords: :

• MVA
• p53
• Peptide library
• PBMC
• CTL expansion
• Cancer patients

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors thank nurses and doctors in the operating room at the City of Hope Medical Center for blood draw before surgery. These studies have been partially supported by AI062496 NIH, CA077544 NIH, CA030206 NIH, and CA1148890 NIH to Don J. Diamond and by CA1148890, Riley Foundation, and FAMRI (042275) to Joshua D.I. Ellenhorn.

DECLARATION OF INTERESTS

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.