Four-CTL Epitope Peptide Vaccine for HLA-Independent Cancer Therapy
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current cancer peptide vaccines are limited by their requirement for HLA typing, making them ineffective for patients with certain HLA types, and they have low response rates, with only 2.7% effectiveness in clinical studies, and they do not induce strong immunoglobulin production in a wide range of cancer patients.
Innovation Solution
A novel peptide vaccine comprising 4 linked CTL epitopes, selected from peptides capable of inducing HLA-A2, HLA-A24, HLA-A26, or HLA-A3 supertype-restricted CTL responses, which can be administered without HLA typing, inducing both CTLs and immunoglobulins, thereby activating antitumor immunity across various HLA types.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a single type of cancer peptide vaccine is administered, then the treatment is simple and easy to implement, but the response rate is low (2.7% effectiveness) and it does not work for patients with certain HLA types
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple cancer peptide vaccines targeting different HLA types (HLA-A2, HLA-A24, HLA-A26, HLA-A3 supertype) into a single composite vaccine formulation. This merging approach allows the vaccine to elicit CTL responses across multiple HLA types simultaneously, achieving both high response rates and broad adaptability without requiring separate vaccinations for different patient groups.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a universal cancer peptide vaccine that functions across multiple HLA types by including epitopes recognized by CTLs from patients with HLA-A2, HLA-A24, HLA-A26, and HLA-A3 supertype. This multi-functional vaccine design eliminates the need for HLA typing and enables a single vaccine formulation to serve diverse patient populations effectively.
2Reliability
If HLA typing is performed prior to treatment to select appropriate peptide vaccines, then the treatment can be tailored to the patient's HLA type, but the treatment initiation time is postponed and the burden on patients increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and eliminates the HLA typing step from the treatment workflow by developing a composite vaccine that covers multiple HLA types. This allows direct administration of the vaccine without preliminary HLA typing, removing the time delay and procedural burden while maintaining treatment effectiveness through broad HLA coverage.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the vaccine into multiple epitope components targeting different HLA types, allowing the composite vaccine to function universally without requiring segmentation of patients into different HLA groups through typing. This structural segmentation of the vaccine itself replaces the need for patient segmentation through HLA typing.
3Reliability
If peptide vaccines targeting specific HLA types (HLA-A2 or HLA-A24) are developed, then excellent clinical effects are achieved in patients with those HLA types, but patients with other HLA types cannot benefit from the treatment
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple HLA-specific peptide vaccines into a single composite formulation containing epitopes for HLA-A2, HLA-A24, HLA-A26, and HLA-A3 supertype. This combination maintains the high clinical effectiveness for each specific HLA type while extending coverage to include patients with other HLA types, achieving both reliability and adaptability simultaneously.
Data Source
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AI summary
This invention provides a cancer antigen peptide that can be administered to a wide range of cancer patients in the form of a peptide vaccine for cancer without the need for HLA typing and regardless of the HLA types of patients. Such peptide having 4 linked CTL epitopes is obtained by linking 4 CTL epitope peptides selected from among CTL epitope peptides derived from tumor antigen molecules that are reported to have the capacity for CTL induction via linkers.