title: In vivo enhancement of the MAGE-specific cellular immune response by a recombinant MAGE1-MAGE3-TBHSP70 tumor vaccine.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Since cytotoxic T cell (CTL) response is the major cellular type in attacking tumor cells, most immunotherapy targets to manipulate the CTL response. Immunotherapies targeting melanoma-specific antigens (MAGEs), a group of tumor-specific shared antigen, have shown to be promising. Our previous study has shown that MAGE1/TBHSP70 and MAGE3/TBHSP70 could induce a robust immune response against B-16 melanoma cells in C57BL/6 mice. In this study, we used an animal model to further demonstrate MAGEs as a potential immunotherapy target for tumorigenesis in vivo.
  
  
  METHODS
  In the current study, we developed a MAGE1/MAGE3/TBHSP70 recombinant protein vaccine and evaluated its protective efficacy against tumor development by challenge vaccine-immunized mice with MAGE-expressing human tumor cell lines in a Hu-PBL-SCID mouse model. The cellular immune reactions were monitored by ELISPOT and cytotoxicity assays.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Splenocytes isolated from vaccine-immunized mice presented potent cytokine secretion capacity and CTL-specific cytotoxic. Vaccine-immunized mice had a significant tumor regression and prolonged survival compared with controls (both p < 0.05). In vitro, rMAGE1-MAGE3-TBHSP70 showed a potent tumor-antigen-specific immune response in both hepatocellular carcinoma and pulmonary carcinoma cell lines.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This newly-developed recombinant protein vaccine may serve as a new immunotherapy for cancer.
authors.affiliation: The State Key Laborotary of Cancer Biology, Xijing Hospital of the Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, 710032 Shanxi China.
authors.forename: Wang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Junwei
authors.affiliation: The State Key Laborotary of Cancer Biology, Xijing Hospital of the Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, 710032 Shanxi China.
authors.forename: Zhan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xiumin
authors.affiliation: The State Key Laborotary of Cancer Biology, Xijing Hospital of the Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, 710032 Shanxi China.
authors.forename: Ye
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jing
authors.affiliation: The State Key Laborotary of Cancer Biology, Xijing Hospital of the Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, 710032 Shanxi China.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shoujing
authors.affiliation: The State Key Laborotary of Cancer Biology, Xijing Hospital of the Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, 710032 Shanxi China.|The Pathology Department, Fourth Military Medical University, ChangLe West Road 17, Xi'an, 710032 Shanxi China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zengshan
keywords: Cytotoxic T cell response; Immunotherapy; Melanoma-specific antigens; Vaccine