Mybl2 peptides and vaccines containing the same

Abstract

Peptide vaccines against cancer are described herein. In particular, epitope peptides derived from the MYBL2 gene that bind to HLA antigen and have cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) inducibility, more particularly peptides having the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 5 and fragments thereof, are provided. The present invention further extends to peptides that include one, two, or several amino acid insertions, substitutions or additions to the aforementioned peptides or fragments, provided they retain cytotoxic T cell inducibility. Also provided as nucleic acids encoding any of the aforementioned peptides, antigen-presenting cells and isolated CTLs that target such peptides, and pharmaceutical agents and compositions including any of the aforementioned peptides, nucleic acids, and APCs as active ingredients. The components of the present invention have particular utility in connection with the treatment and / or prophylaxis (i.e., prevention) of cancers (tumors), and / or the prevention of a postoperative recurrence thereof.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to the field of biological sciences, more specifically to the field of cancer treatment. Specifically, the present invention relates to novel peptides that are extremely useful as cancer vaccines, and drugs for treating and preventing tumors. [0002] priority [0003] This application claims the benefit of US Provisional Application No. 61 / 266,871, filed December 4, 2009, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. Background technique [0004] It has been demonstrated that CD8-positive CTLs can recognize epitope peptides derived from tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) appearing on major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules, and then kill tumor cells. Since the discovery of the first example of TAA—the melanoma antigen (MAGE) family, people have mainly used immunological methods (NPL 1: Boon T, Int J Cancer 1993May 8,54(2):177-80; NPL 2: Boon T & van der Bruggen P, J Exp Med 1996 Mar...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Unfortunately, only low objective response rates have been observed so far in these cancer vaccine trials (NPL 11, Belli F et al., J Clin Oncol 2002 Oct 15,20(20):4169-80; NPL 12, Coulie PG et al., Immunol Rev 2002Oct, 188:33-42; NPL 13, Rosenberg SA et al., Nat Med 2004Sep, 10(9):909-15)

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