title: Low effectiveness of DNA vaccination against HER-2/neu in ageing.
abstract: We evaluated the effectiveness of vaccination with a HER-2/neu DNA plasmid to induce protective immunity against HER-2/neu overexpressing syngeneic TUBO tumour cells in old ages. Young and old Balb/c mice received three immunizations with a pCMVneuNT DNA plasmid and, successively, were challenged with TUBO cells. Young mice were completely protected whereas less than 60% protection was observed in old mice. Anti-p185(neu) antibodies were found in the sera from both young and old immunized mice, even if antibody production was significantly higher in young in comparison with old mice. Similarly, higher anti-p185(neu) lymphocyte proliferation was induced in young than in old mice. No anti-p185(neu) cytotoxicity was found in lymphocytes from old animals. We conclude that anticancer DNA vaccination has a lower effectiveness in old than in young ages.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Tumor Immunology, INRCA Gerontology Research Department, Immunology Centre, Via Birarelli 8, 60121 Ancona, Italy. m.provinciali@inrca.it
authors.forename: Mauro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Provinciali
authors.forename: Arianna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Smorlesi
authors.forename: Alessia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Donnini
authors.forename: Beatrice
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bartozzi
authors.forename: Augusto
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Amici
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000276:immunology*; D000818:Animals; D019496:Cancer Vaccines / Q000235:genetics* / Q000494:pharmacology*; D018734:Genes, erbB-2; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D009368:Neoplasm Transplantation; D009374:Neoplasms, Experimental / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy; D010957:Plasmids / Q000235:genetics; D014185:Transplantation, Isogeneic; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured; D019444:Vaccines, DNA / Q000235:genetics* / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D019496:Cancer Vaccines; D019444:Vaccines, DNA