title: In vivo expansion, persistence, and function of peptide vaccine-induced CD8 T cells occur independently of CD4 T cells.
abstract: Significant efforts are being devoted toward the development of effective therapeutic vaccines against cancer. Specifically, well-characterized subunit vaccines, which are designed to generate antitumor cytotoxic CD8 T-cell responses. Because CD4 T cells participate at various stages of CD8 T-cell responses, it is important to study the role of CD4 T cells in the induction and persistence of antitumor CD8 T-cell responses by these vaccines. Recent evidence points to the requirement of CD4 T cells for the long-term persistence of memory CD8 T cells, which in the case of cancer immunotherapy would be critical for the prevention of tumor recurrences. The purpose of the present study was to assess whether CD4 T cells are necessary for the generation and maintenance of antigen-specific CD8 T cells induced by subunit (peptide or DNA) vaccines. We have used a vaccination strategy that combines synthetic peptides representing CD8 T-cell epitopes, a costimulatory anti-CD40 antibody and a Toll-like receptor agonist (TriVax) to generate large numbers of antigen-specific CD8 T-cell responses. Our results show that the rate of decline (clonal contraction) of the antigen-specific CD8 T cells and their functional state is not affected by the presence or absence of CD4 T cells throughout the immune response generated by TriVax. We believe that these results bear importance for the design of effective vaccination strategies against cancer.
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology, Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, Florida 33612, USA.
authors.forename: Deepak
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Assudani
authors.forename: Hyun-Il
authors.initials: HI
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: DeVito
authors.forename: Norma
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bradley
authors.forename: Esteban
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Celis
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D019013:CD40 Antigens / Q000276:immunology; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D019496:Cancer Vaccines / Q000276:immunology* / Q000494:pharmacology; D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D000949:Histocompatibility Antigens Class II / Q000276:immunology; D016393:Lymphoma, B-Cell / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy; D008325:Mammary Neoplasms, Experimental / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy; D008546:Melanoma, Experimental / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D009374:Neoplasms, Experimental / Q000276:immunology* / Q000628:therapy; D051193:Toll-Like Receptors / Q000819:agonists / Q000276:immunology; D019444:Vaccines, DNA / Q000276:immunology / Q000494:pharmacology; D022223:Vaccines, Subunit / Q000276:immunology* / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D019013:CD40 Antigens; D019496:Cancer Vaccines; D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte; D000949:Histocompatibility Antigens Class II; D051193:Toll-Like Receptors; D019444:Vaccines, DNA; D022223:Vaccines, Subunit