NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASESA vaccine targeting a mutation found in a subset of tumors, including slow-growing brain malignancies called gliomas, can induce an immune response and prevent tumor progression in mice, according to a study published today (June 25) in Nature. Michael Platten, a neuro-oncologist at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, Germany, and his colleagues have shown in a mouse model of glioma that this peptide vaccine induces a mutation-specific immune response and can fight pre-existing tumors.
“This is a proof-of-principle study,” said Darell Bigner, a cancer researcher and brain tumor expert at Duke University in North Carolina. “The tumor-specific peptides [used in this study] have potential as a tumor vaccine, and should be evaluated in human clinical trials.”
The vaccine contains a short peptide sequence of the point mutation in the isocitrate dehydrogenase type 1 (IDH1), which is found in more than 70 percent of gliomas. “We wanted to target a tumor-specific antigen, so a frequently found mutation was an obvious choice,” said Platten.
The goal of cancer vaccines is to boost the immune system’s ability to recognize tumors as foreign. But so far, tumor-specific vaccines, which have mostly been tested in advanced cancer patients, have generally not been found to ...
