Novel antigen immunotherapy with MHC presentation is a promising approach to cancer treatment. Using this approach, we can design cancer vaccines to target tumor-specific mutations not found in normal tissues, enhance the immune response and eradicate tumors. MHC-related peptide libraries are important in the formulation of peptide vaccines. Creative BioMart offers MHC-based cancer vaccine development services to identify tumor-specific peptides that bind to MHC molecules through immunoproteomics approaches, combined with a better understanding of vaccine therapy for cancer, to generate more effective vaccine regimens.

Tumor-associated MHC-I Presented Peptide Antigen

MHC-I molecules are present on the surface of all nucleated cells and display a large number of peptide epitopes representing the changing proteome of cells for CD8⁺ T cell surveillance. CD8⁺ T cell responses are critical for the control and clearance of viral infections and the elimination of tumorigenic cells. Therapeutic vaccines based on MHC-I presenting peptide epitopes could theoretically induce CD8⁺ T-cell responses to eradicate tumors through immunotherapy.

Fig.1 pMHC-1 antigen is used for immunotherapy of cancer. (Comber J D, et al., 2014)

One of the major limitations in cancer vaccine development is the lack of specific tumor antigens that can be recognized by T cells, and the pMHC-1 antigen is used for immunotherapy of cancer. Analysis of peptide libraries associated with MHC-I molecules in cancer cells may provide a new source for the development of cancer immunotherapies, and genetic, sequencing, and immunoproteomic analyses are currently available to identify MHC-I-related epitopes for the development of peptide-based cancer vaccines.

Identification of Tumor-Specific MHC Peptides

Effective therapeutic cancer vaccines must induce tumor-specific T cell responses by selecting proteins involved in the cancer pathway. Therefore, we provide and continuously improve methods and tools for the selection and identification of candidate neoepitopes for vaccine design, identifying tumor-associated mutation-derived neoepitopes and unmutated tumor-associated self-peptides and assessing their potential as T-cell epitopes.

• We can predict the sequences of MHC binding peptides by genome sequencing and prediction algorithms and confirm the predicted peptides by MS analysis.
• We perform direct MS analysis of the immunopeptidome on cancer cells or tumor tissue to identify specific MHC peptides.
• We can identify mutant peptides by genome or transcriptome sequencing data on specific proteomes.
• Characterization of post-translational modifications of relevant antigens and studies of triggered immune responses.

Practical Applications

We provide solutions for cancer vaccine development using synthetic tumor-associated or specific MHC peptides or peptide combinations to induce and activate peptide-specific tumor-reactive T cells in vivo for an effective anti-tumor immune response.

Creative BioMart focuses on helping our clients address vaccine peptide composition that can be applied primarily in,

• Melanoma. Many well described MHC-I restricted epitopes such as MAGE-1 protein are available for testing.
• Breast cancer. Multiple HLA-A2, Her2-neu and other specific epitopes can be combined for multi-epitope testing.
• Other tumors. Multiple specific epitopes that can be applied for colon cancer, kidney cancer, etc.

We are constantly working to improve cancer peptide vaccine development in order to advance cancer therapy and help our customers design effective MHC peptide vaccines that address and optimize different problems. If you would like more information about our services, a project quote or professional consultation, please contact us.

Reference

• Comber J D, et al. "MHC class I antigen presentation and implications for developing a new generation of therapeutic vaccines." Therapeutic advances in vaccines (2014), 2(3): 77-89.