Josi, Romano; Speiser, Daniel E; de Brot, Simone; Vogt, Anne-Cathrine; Sevick-Muraca, Eva M; Tolstonog, Genrich V; Bachmann, Martin F; Mohsen, Mona O (2024). A tetravalent nanovaccine that inhibits growth of HPV-associated head and neck carcinoma via dendritic and T cell activation. iScience, 27(4) Elsevier 10.1016/j.isci.2024.109439
|
Text
1-s2.0-S2589004224006606-main.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons: Attribution (CC-BY). Download (6MB) | Preview |
The global incidence of human papillomavirus (HPV) associated head and neck carcinoma is on the rise, in response to this a tetravalent therapeutic vaccine named Qβ-HPVag was developed. This vaccine, utilizing virus-like particles (VLPs) loaded with toll-like receptor ligands and chemically coupled to four HPV16-derived peptides, demonstrated strong anti-tumor effects in a murine head and neck cancer model. Qβ-HPVag impeded tumor progression, increased infiltration of HPV-specific T cells, and significantly improved survival. The vaccine`s efficacy was associated with immune repolarization in the tumor microenvironment, characterized by expanded activated dendritic cell subsets (cDC1, cDC2, DC3). Notably, mice responding to treatment exhibited a higher percentage of migratory DC3 cells expressing CCR7. These findings suggest promising prospects for optimized VLP-based vaccines in treating HPV-associated head and neck cancer.