BACKGROUND Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and its receptor, VEGFR-2 (Flk-1/KDR), play a key role in tumor angiogenesis. Blocking the VEGF-VEGFR-2 pathway may inhibit tumor growth. Here, we used human VEGFR-2 as a model antigen to explore the feasibility of immunotherapy with a plasmid DNA vaccine based on a xenogeneic homologue of this receptor. METHODS The protective effects and t...

Investigation into the therapeutic use of vaccines in patients with metastatic melanoma is critically important because of the lack of effective conventional modalities. The most extensively studied melanoma vaccines in clinical trials are whole-cell preparations or cell lysates that contain multiple antigens capable of stimulating an immune response. Unfortunately, in the majority of studies, ...

Staphylococcus aureus is an invasive bacterial pathogen, and antibiotic resistance has impeded adequate control of infections caused by this microbe. Moreover, efforts to prevent human infections with single-component S. aureus vaccines have failed. In this study, we evaluated the protective efficacy in rats of vaccines containing both S. aureus capsular polysaccharides (CPs) and proteins. The ...

BACKGROUND Virus-specific cellular immune responses play a critical role in virus clearance during acute or chronic HBV infection. Currently, the commercially available HBV vaccine is combined with alum adjuvant, which stimulates mainly Th2 immune responses. Therefore, development of new therapeutic HBV vaccine adjuvants and immune strategies that also promote Th1 and CTL responses is urgently ...

B7-H4 is a member of B7 family of co-inhibitory molecules and B7-H4 protein is found to be overexpressed in many human cancers and which is usually associated with poor survival. In this study, we developed a therapeutic vaccine made from a fusion protein composed of a tetanus toxoid (TT) T-helper cell epitope and human B7-H4IgV domain (TT-rhB7-H4IgV). We investigated the anti-tumor effect of t...

Dickkopf-1 (DKK1), broadly expressed in myeloma cells but highly restricted in normal tissues, together with its functional roles as an osteoblast formation inhibitor, may be an ideal target for immunotherapy in myeloma. Our previous studies have shown that DKK1 (peptide)-specific CTLs can effectively lyse primary myeloma cells in vitro. The goal of this study was to examine whether DKK1 can be...

Virus-specific CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) responses play an important role in the control of immunodeficiency virus infections. Therapeutic immunization with antigen-pulsed dendritic cells (DC) may be a promising strategy for stimulating CTL. However, decreases in DC number and function have been suggested in the host persistently infected with the virus, and this may constitute an obsta...

CD8(+) T cells have the potential to attack and eradicate cancer cells. The efficacy of therapeutic vaccines against cancer, however, lacks defined immune correlates of tumor eradication after (therapeutic) vaccination based on features of Ag-specific T cell responses. In this study, we examined CD8(+) T cell responses elicited by various peptide and TLR agonist-based vaccine formulations in no...

Although effective in reducing mortality, current antiretroviral therapy for HIV infection involves complex and expensive drug regimens that are toxic and difficult to take. Eradication of HIV reservoirs is not possible with existing therapies. The concept of therapeutic vaccination has been investigated to increase the potency and breadth of anti-HIV immune responses in order to delay or reduc...