In recent years, peptide-based therapeutic tumor vaccines have received much attention as one of the effective means of tumor immunotherapy. At present, a variety of peptide-based therapeutic cancer vaccines have been developed with remarkable success. Likewise, combinations of peptide-based vaccines and other therapies have shown superior efficacy in enhancing anti-cancer activity. Alfa Cytology has advanced vaccine development platforms and extensive experience in pancreatic cancer (PC) research. We are offering peptide-based vaccine development services for PC, including peptide-based vaccine preparation, pre-clinical studies, and neoantigen-based peptide vaccine development.
Peptide-based Cancer Vaccines
Peptide-based cancer vaccines typically consist of 20-30 amino acids containing specific epitopes of highly immunogenic antigens, triggering the desired immune response. These vaccines utilize two types of peptides: short peptides (8-12 amino acids) and synthetic long peptides (20 amino acids or more). Short peptides, despite their short half-lives and susceptibility to degradation in serum, can bind to the HLA class I groove on the surface of nucleated cells without processing by professional antigen-presenting cells (APCs). To enhance their effectiveness, short peptides are usually bound to carrier proteins, allowing uptake and processing by APCs, thereby eliciting a potent immune response.
Fig. 1 Mechanism of action and optimization schematic of peptide-based cancer vaccines. (Abd-Aziz, et al., 2022)
In contrast, synthetic long peptides are more stable and immunogenic. They are taken up and processed by APCs to produce peptides presented by both HLA class I and II molecules, generating strong and durable anti-tumor immune responses. This includes activation of CD8+ T cells, CD4+ T cells, and antibody production by B cells. Peptide vaccines offer several advantages over other types of vaccines, particularly in terms of safety and ease of production, making them a promising approach in cancer immunotherapy.
Advantages of Peptide-based Cancer Vaccine
- Safety: Reduced risk of adverse reactions due to well-defined amino acid sequences.
- Ease of Production: Cost-effective and scalable manufacturing process.
- Targeted Immune Response: Designed to include highly immunogenic epitopes for effective cancer targeting.
- Stability: Long shelf-life and resistance to degradation.
- Customizability: Easily tailored to target specific tumor antigens for personalized treatment.
- Robust Immune Response: Activates CD8+ T cells, CD4+ T cells, and B cells for a comprehensive anti-tumor response.
- Combination Therapy Potential: Enhances effectiveness when combined with other treatments.
- Minimal Autoimmunity Risk: High specificity for cancer antigens reduces the risk of autoimmunity.
- Rapid Development: Quickly adaptable to emerging cancer mutations.
- Enhanced Antigen Presentation: Improves dendritic cell-mediated activation of T cells.
Our Services
Based on our accumulated in-depth knowledge of PC biology, we focus on the choices of targets, design and screening of epitope peptides, and pre-clinical study of the efficacy and safety of peptide-based PC vaccines. Our team of experts is confident in providing the best service in peptide-based vaccine development for PC and guaranteeing the best results for our customers around the world.
Peptide-based vaccine preparation
- Target choices of peptide-based therapeutic cancer vaccines
- Design and screening of epitope peptides
- Peptide modification
- Selection of potent adjuvants or immunostimulators
- Development of ideal delivery systems
Peptide-based vaccine pre-clinical studies
- Selection of optimal regimens (dose, schedule, and administration route)
- Feasible and immunogenic evaluation of peptide-based vaccines
- Anti-tumor efficacy test of peptide-based vaccines
- Toxicity evaluation of peptide-based vaccines
Neoantigen-based peptide vaccine development
- Research design and consultation
- Personalized peptide neoantigen vaccine generation
- Personalized peptide neoantigen vaccine pre-clinical validation
Peptide-based cancer vaccines offer many advantages in terms of ease of production, cost-effective production, low carcinogenic potential, insensitivity to pathogen contamination, and high chemical stability. In addition, the administration is simple and the immune response can be monitored in vitro, therefore, peptide-based cancer vaccines may be a promising therapeutic approach for PC. For more information on our services, please don't hesitate to contact us.
References
- Abd-Aziz, Noraini, and Chit Laa Poh. "Development of Peptide-Based Vaccines for Cancer." Journal of Oncology 2022 (2022).
- Liu, Wensi, et al. "Peptide-based therapeutic cancer vaccine: current trends in clinical application." Cell Proliferation 54.5 (2021): e13025.
- Zhang, Lu, et al. "Peptide-based materials for cancer immunotherapy." Theranostics 9.25 (2019): 7807.
