Overview of mimotopes and related strategies in tumor vaccine development

Abstract

Tumor vaccine has been studied extensively as an alternative or adjuvant therapy in the treatment of malignant tumors in the hope of prolonging the overall survival rates of cancer patients. The efficacy largely relies on the specificity of the target. In the last decade, many antibody epitopes, called mimotopes, have been revealed as candidates through phage-display technology. These mimotopes do not necessarily consist of amino acid sequences that are identical to the native antigen but they do mimic their structure. Tumor vaccines based on these mimotopes have been proposed as an important developing strategy. Some peptide mimotopes have produced encouraging clinical outcomes. Although most studies are still in the preclinical phase, these findings will possibly pave the way for the development of novel mimotope-based tumor vaccines.

Keywords::

• immunotherapy
• neoplasm
• peptide mimotope
• phage display
• tumor vaccine

Financial & competing interests disclosure

This work was supported in part by grants (30672369) from The National Natural Science Foundation of China. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.