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Updated: Jul 2, 2025
Intramucosal Inoculation of Squamous Cell Carcinoma Cells in Mice for Tumor Immune Profiling and Treatment Response Assessment
Published on: April 22, 2019
Immunotherapy targeting tumor-associated antigen in a mouse model of head and neck cancer
Michihisa Kono1, Risa Wakisaka1, Hiroki Komatsuda1
1Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, Asahikawa Medical University, Asahikawa, Japan.
Background:
The identification of epitope peptides from tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) is informative for developing tumor-specific immunotherapy. However, only a few epitopes have been detected in mouse TAAs of head and neck cancer (HNSCC).
Methods:
Novel mouse c-Met-derived T-cell epitopes were predicted by computer-based algorithms. Mouse HNSCC cell line-bearing mice were treated with a c-Met peptide vaccine. The effects of CD8 and/or CD4 T-cell depletion, and vaccine combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) were evaluated. Tumor re-inoculation was performed to assess T-cell memory.
Results:
We identified c-Met-derived short and long epitopes that elicited c-Met-reactive antitumor CD8 and/or CD4 T-cell responses. Vaccination using these peptides showed remarkable antitumor responses via T cells in which ICIs were not required. The c-Met peptide-vaccinated mice rejected the re-inoculated tumors.
Conclusions:
We demonstrated that novel c-Met peptide vaccines can induce antitumor T-cell response, and could be a potent immunotherapy in a syngeneic mouse HNSCC model.
