title: Peptide vaccines in breast cancer: The immunological basis for clinical response.
abstract: This review discusses peptide-based vaccines in breast cancer, immune responses and clinical outcomes, which include studies on animal models and phase I, phase I/II, phase II and phase III clinical trials. Peptide-based vaccines are powerful neoadjuvant immunotherapies that can directly target proteins expressed in tumor cells, mainly tumor-associated antigens (TAAs). The most common breast cancer TAA epitopes are derived from MUC1, HER2/neu and CEA proteins. Peptides derived from TAAs could be successfully used to elicit CD8 and CD4 T cell-specific responses. Thus, choosing peptides that adapt to natural variations of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genes is critical. The most attractive advantage is that the target response is more specific and less toxic than for other therapies and vaccines. Prominent studies on NeuVax - E75 (epitope for HER2/neu and GM-CSF) in breast cancer and DPX-0907 (HLA-A2-TAAs) expressed in breast cancer, ovarian and prostate cancer have shown the efficacy of peptide-based vaccines as neoadjuvant immunotherapy against cancer. Future peptide vaccine strategies, although a challenge to be applied in a broad range of breast cancers, point to the development of degenerate multi-epitope immunogens against multiple targets.
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Osteoimunologia e Imunologia dos Tumores, Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas (ICBIM) - Universidade Federal de Uberlândia - UFU, Uberlândia, MG, Brazil. Electronic address: lipperes23@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Lívia de Paula
authors.initials: Lde P
authors.lastname: Peres
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Osteoimunologia e Imunologia dos Tumores, Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas (ICBIM) - Universidade Federal de Uberlândia - UFU, Uberlândia, MG, Brazil.
authors.forename: Felipe Andrés Cordero
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: da Luz
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Osteoimunologia e Imunologia dos Tumores, Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas (ICBIM) - Universidade Federal de Uberlândia - UFU, Uberlândia, MG, Brazil.
authors.forename: Brunna dos Anjos
authors.initials: Bdos A
authors.lastname: Pultz
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Tripanossomatídeos, Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas (ICBIM) - Universidade Federal de Uberlândia - UFU, Uberlândia, MG, Brazil.
authors.forename: Paula Cristina
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Brígido
authors.affiliation: Setor de Oncologia - Hospital de Clínicas de Uberlândia - UFU, Uberlândia, MG, Brazil.
authors.forename: Rogério Agenor
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: de Araújo
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Nanobiotecnologia - Universidade Federal de Uberlândia - UFU, (INGEB), Uberlândia, MG, Brazil.
authors.forename: Luiz Ricardo
authors.initials: LR
authors.lastname: Goulart
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Osteoimunologia e Imunologia dos Tumores, Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas (ICBIM) - Universidade Federal de Uberlândia - UFU, Uberlândia, MG, Brazil. Electronic address: majbsilva@icbim.ufu.br.
authors.forename: Marcelo José Barbosa
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Silva
mesh_terms: D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000276:immunology*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D000939:Epitopes / Q000276:immunology; D005260:Female; D015789:HLA-A2 Antigen / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D010455:Peptides / Q000276:immunology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000276:immunology; D022223:Vaccines, Subunit / Q000276:immunology* / Q000627:therapeutic use
chemical_list: D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; D000939:Epitopes; D015789:HLA-A2 Antigen; D010455:Peptides; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; D022223:Vaccines, Subunit; C508053:ERBB2 protein, human
keywords: Breast cancer; Breast cancer immunotherapy; Breast cancer therapy; Peptide-based vaccines; Tumor-associated antigens