Human papillomaviruses (HPVs) are implicated in the etiology of cervical cancer and HPV type 16 (HPV 16) is commonly identified in malignant cervical cancer tissues. Genetic analysis has revealed that the E6 and E? genes of HPV16 are sufficient for the transformation of both mouse fibroblasts and primary human keratinocytes. This will allow the performance of fundamental tumorvirus-immunological experiments in mice and the extrapolation of the results to humans. The objectives of this application are 1) to determine the role of cellular immunity in the eradication of HPV induced tumors in mice and in humans. 2) to determine if there is a relation between cervical cancer, HLA type and HPV type. 3) to develop a peptide based vaccine against HPV and to explore its effectiveness in mice. 4) to develop a protocol for immunotherapy of HPV induced tumors by adoptive transfer of cultured cells in mice and 5) to discover possible immune escape mechanism of HPV induced tumors and to explore the neutralization of these mechanisms in mice. To achieve these goals the following methodology will be used: 1) mouse and human HPV16 specific CTL will be generated from immunized mice and cervical carcinoma patients. These CTL clones will be analyzed for their peptide specificity by using a set of overlapping peptides spanning the HPV16 protein sequences. Mouse CTL clones will be adoptively transferred to explore their capacity to eradicate these tumors. 2) MHC binding peptides of HPV16 will be identified with the same set of peptides. For this purpose cellines of mouse (RMA-S) or human (T2) origin both with """"""""empty"""""""" MHC molecules will be used. Peptides that bind into the groove of these empty MHC molecules induce an increase of MHC expression which can be analyzed by immunofluorescence. 3) The identified peptides from 1 and 2 will be used to vaccinate mice. Three weeks after vaccination these mice will be challenged with live tumor cells to assess the degree of protection against tumor growth. HPV peptides identified for the mouse and human models will be used to induce primary CTL responses. The peptides will be presented by the RMA-S and T2 celllines. Mouse CTL clones obtained in this manner will also be used for adoptive transfer experiments. 4) Cervical carcinoma patients will be HLA typed and their surgically removed tumor material will be analyzed for the presence of HPV subtypes with the use of RNA-PCR. 5) HPV 16 induced tumors of mouse and man will be analyzed by immunofluorescence, histochemistry and RNA- PCR techniques for the levels of MHC expression, HPV16 gene expression and TGF beta gene expression to detect possible mechanisms that these tumors use to escape from T cell destruction. Eventually neutralization of these mechanisms will be explored. The combined analysis will shed light on a possible role of cellular immunity in the defense against HPV16 induced tumors and on ways of applying cellular immunity for therapeutic or preventive purposes in this type of cancer.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
1R01CA057933-01
Application #
3202239
Study Section
AIDS and Related Research Study Section 4 (ARRD)
Project Start
1993-05-15
Project End
1995-04-30
Budget Start
1993-05-15
Budget End
1994-04-30
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
1993
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Leiden University
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Leiden
State
Country
Netherlands
Zip Code
2311-Z
Ressing, M E; van Driel, W J; Brandt, R M et al. (2000) Detection of T helper responses, but not of human papillomavirus-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte responses, after peptide vaccination of patients with cervical carcinoma. J Immunother 23:255-66
Ressing, M E; de Jong, J H; Brandt, R M et al. (1999) Differential binding of viral peptides to HLA-A2 alleles. Implications for human papillomavirus type 16 E7 peptide-based vaccination against cervical carcinoma. Eur J Immunol 29:1292-303
van Driel, W J; Ressing, M E; Brandt, R M et al. (1996) The current status of therapeutic HPV vaccine. Ann Med 28:471-7
Ressing, M E; van Driel, W J; Celis, E et al. (1996) Occasional memory cytotoxic T-cell responses of patients with human papillomavirus type 16-positive cervical lesions against a human leukocyte antigen-A *0201-restricted E7-encoded epitope. Cancer Res 56:582-8
Ressing, M E; Offringa, R; Toes, R E et al. (1996) Immunotherapy of cancer by peptide-based vaccines for the induction of tumor-specific T cell immunity. Immunotechnology 2:241-51
Toes, R E; Feltkamp, M C; Ressing, M E et al. (1995) Cellular immunity against DNA tumour viruses: possibilities for peptide-based vaccines and immune escape. Biochem Soc Trans 23:692-6
D'Amaro, J; Houbiers, J G; Drijfhout, J W et al. (1995) A computer program for predicting possible cytotoxic T lymphocyte epitopes based on HLA class I peptide-binding motifs. Hum Immunol 43:13-8
van der Burg, S H; Ras, E; Drijfhout, J W et al. (1995) An HLA class I peptide-binding assay based on competition for binding to class I molecules on intact human B cells. Identification of conserved HIV-1 polymerase peptides binding to HLA-A*0301. Hum Immunol 44:189-98
Ressing, M E; Sette, A; Brandt, R M et al. (1995) Human CTL epitopes encoded by human papillomavirus type 16 E6 and E7 identified through in vivo and in vitro immunogenicity studies of HLA-A*0201-binding peptides. J Immunol 154:5934-43
Drijfhout, J W; Brandt, R M; D'Amaro, J et al. (1995) Detailed motifs for peptide binding to HLA-A*0201 derived from large random sets of peptides using a cellular binding assay. Hum Immunol 43:1-12

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