[Recent advance in carbohydrate-based cancer vaccines].
The abnormal glycans expressing on the surface of tumor cells are good targets to develop carbohydrate-based anti-cancer vaccines. However, one of the major problems is that carbohydrate antigens possess weak immunogenicity. This review summarizes the recent efforts to overcome this problem: glycoconjugates produced by coupling the carbohydrate antigens and proper carrier proteins improve their immunogenicity, many glycoconjugates have entered clinical trials; the vaccines become chemically well-defined when coupling the carbohydrate antigens with a T-cell peptide epitope and an immunostimulant to form fully synthetic multi-component glycoconjugate vaccines; the modification of carbohydrate antigens in combination with the technology of metabolic oligosaccharide engineering of tumor cells induces a strong immune response; and the fact that the antibodies elicited against the unnatural carbohydrate antigens can recognize the native carbohydrate antigens on tumor cells provides a new promising strategy for the development of anti-cancer vaccines.
State Key Laboratory of Natural and Biomimetic Drugs, Peking University, Beijing 100191, China.
Chang-Xin
CX
Huo
Xin-Shan
XS
Ye
D000818:Animals; D015295:Antigens, Tumor-Associated, Carbohydrate / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000276:immunology; D019496:Cancer Vaccines / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002241:Carbohydrates / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology; D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte / Q000737:chemistry / Q000276:immunology; D006001:Glycoconjugates / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007108:Immune Tolerance; D060847:Metabolic Engineering / Q000379:methods; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000628:therapy; D009844:Oligosaccharides / Q000737:chemistry
D015295:Antigens, Tumor-Associated, Carbohydrate; D019496:Cancer Vaccines; D002241:Carbohydrates; D018984:Epitopes, T-Lymphocyte; D006001:Glycoconjugates; D009844:Oligosaccharides