title: The enlargement of the hormone immune deprivation concept to the blocking of TGFalpha-autocrine loop: EGFR signaling inhibition.
abstract: Transforming growth factor alpha (TGFalpha) is a potent ligand of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). EGFR is frequently over-expressed in epithelial tumors and endogenous ligands, mostly TGFalpha, are frequently co-expressed with EGFR, potentially resulting in autocrine stimulation of tumor cell growth. Therefore, different therapeutic approaches aim for the inactivation of TGFalpha/EGF/EGFR signaling system, but no approach is based on TGFalpha as a target. The principal goal of this work was to assess the potential of an active specific immunotherapy approach to block the TGFalpha/EGFR autocrine loop. For the proof of the concept, a fusion protein between human TGFalpha (hTGFalpha) and P64k protein from Neisseria meningitidis was generated, and its immunogenicity characterized in a mouse model using different adjuvants. All immunogens were effective for the generation of specific humoral responses against hTGFalpha. The inmunodominant epitope of hTGFalpha when immunizing mice with the fusion protein involved the C-loop/C-terminal region. This region includes key residues for hTGFalpha binding to EGFR. The anti-hTGFalpha immune mice sera recognized the natural hTGFalpha precursor in A431 cells and hTGFalpha-transfected 3T3 fibroblasts as revealed by flow cytometry analysis and immunoblotting. They inhibited the binding of (125)I-TGFalpha to the EGFR, EGFR-autophosphorylation, and downstream activation of MAP kinases as well as proliferation of two EGFR-expressing human carcinoma cell lines. These data suggest that EGFR signaling activation by the hTGFalpha autocrine loop may be inhibited in vivo by induction of specifically blocking antibodies. The fusion protein reported in this paper could be a potential immunogen for the development of a new cancer vaccine.
authors.affiliation: Center of Molecular Immunology, CIM, P.O.Box 16040, Havana 11600, Cuba. aillette@ict.cim.sld.cu
authors.forename: Aillette
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mulet
authors.forename: Greta
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Garrido
authors.forename: Anabel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alvarez
authors.forename: Tamara
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Menéndez
authors.forename: Frank-D
authors.initials: FD
authors.lastname: Böhmer
authors.forename: Rolando
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pérez
authors.forename: Luis Enrique
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Fernández
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019138:Antibodies, Blocking; D015153:Blotting, Western; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D066246:ErbB Receptors / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D006801:Humans; D016056:Immunodominant Epitopes / Q000276:immunology; D051379:Mice; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000276:immunology*; D015398:Signal Transduction / Q000276:immunology*; D016211:Transforming Growth Factor alpha / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D019138:Antibodies, Blocking; D016056:Immunodominant Epitopes; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; D016211:Transforming Growth Factor alpha; D066246:ErbB Receptors