ABOVE: MODIFIED FROM
© 2019 Terese Winslow LLC
To create an individualized cancer vaccine, researchers must identify cancer-specific peptides called neoantigens, then use a cell-, protein-, or nucleic acid–based platform to deliver those neoantigens to patients to prime the immune system to attack the tumor. Antigen-presenting cells such as dendritic cells (purple) internalize the cancer-specific peptides (bright green) selected for a personalized cancer vaccine and display them on their surface with the help of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) proteins. This triggers T cells (blue) with receptors that bind those neoantigens to differentiate into effector, or killer, T cells (green) that mobilize an immune reaction against cancer cells (orange).
Monocytes are extracted from the blood of patients and cultured with synthetic versions of selected cancer neoantigens to form mature dendritic cells carrying those neoantigens. These cells are then reinfused into the patient’s circulation.
Synthetic peptides containing the neoantigen sequences are injected into ...
