title: Design and pre-clinical development of epitope-based DNA vaccines against B-cell lymphoma.
abstract: Optimally designed cancer vaccines should combine the best tumor antigens with the most effective immunotherapy agents and delivery strategies to achieve positive clinical results. The unique immunoglobulin (Ig) idiotype on the surface of each B-cell lymphoma represents an ideal tumor-specific antigen for use as a cancer vaccine. It has been theorized that effective cancer vaccines can be developed using the minimum essential subset of T cell and B cell epitopes that comprise the 'immunome', the universe of neoplasm-derived peptides that interface with B and T cells of the host immune system. Idiotypic antigenic determinants of a B-cell lymphoma lie within the hypervariable regions and mainly within the complementarity-determining regions (CDR)s 3. Thus, the CDR3s are considered a "hot spot" of particular interest for construction of subunit vaccines. DNA vaccines, whose safety and tolerability are substantiated in completed and ongoing clinical trials, have emerged as a novel lymphoma vaccine formulation for antigen-specific immunotherapy. The molecular precision tools offered by gene-based vaccines allow to explore the use of CDR3 sequence as an anti-lymphoma vaccine.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Translational Pharmacology, Department of Medicine, National Research Council, via Fosso del Cavaliere 100, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Iurescia
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fioretti
authors.forename: Vito Michele
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Fazio
authors.forename: Monica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rinaldi
mesh_terms: D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D019496:Cancer Vaccines / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology*; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D022801:Complementarity Determining Regions / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D018985:Epitopes, B-Lymphocyte / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D015316:Genetic Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D005822:Genetic Vectors; D006801:Humans; D007130:Immunoglobulin Idiotypes / Q000276:immunology; D016393:Lymphoma, B-Cell / Q000628:therapy*; D019444:Vaccines, DNA / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D019496:Cancer Vaccines; D022801:Complementarity Determining Regions; D018985:Epitopes, B-Lymphocyte; D007130:Immunoglobulin Idiotypes; D019444:Vaccines, DNA