Lambda bacteriophage nanoparticles displaying GP2, a HER2/neu derived peptide, induce prophylactic and therapeutic

Atefeh Razazan1, Jessica Nicastro2,3, Roderick Slavcev2,3,4,5,6

  • 1Biotechnology Research Center, Pharmaceutical Technology Institute, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.

Scientific Reports
|February 20, 2019
PubMed

Generating a protective and long-lasting immune response is the primary goal in the expanding field of immunotherapeutic research. In current study we designed an immunogenic bacteriophage- based vaccine to induce a cytotoxic T lymphocyte activity against a mice tumor model over-expressing HER2/neu. Bacteriophage λ displaying a HER2/neu derived peptide GP2 was constructed and used as an anti-cancer vaccine in a BALB/c mouse xenograft tumor model. The results of our study indicated that phage nanoparticles displaying GP2 as a fused peptide to the gpD phage capsid protein induced a robust CTL response. Furthermore, the chimeric phage nanoparticles protected mice against HER2/neu-positive tumor challenge in both prophylactic and therapeutic settings. In conclusion, we propose that λ phage nanoparticles decorated with GP2 peptide merit further investigation for the development of peptide-based vaccines against HER2/neu overexpressing tumors.

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