MYBL2 epitope peptides and vaccines containing the same

Abstract

Peptide vaccines against cancer are described herein. In particular, the present invention describes epitope peptides derived from MYBL2 that elicit CTLs. The present invention also provides established CTLs that specifically recognize HLA-A24 positive target cells pulsed with the peptides. Antigen-presenting cells and exosomes that present any of the peptides, as well as methods for inducing antigen-presenting cells are also provided. The present invention further provides pharmaceutical agents containing the MYBL2 polypeptides or polynucleotides encoding thereof, as well as exosomes and antigen-presenting cells as active ingredients. Furthermore, the present invention provides methods for treating and / or prophylaxis of (i.e., preventing) cancers (tumors), and / or prevention of postoperative recurrence thereof, as well as methods for inducing CTLs, methods for inducing anti-tumor immunity, using the MYBL2 polypeptides, polynucleotides encoding the polypeptides, exosomes or antigen-presenting cells presenting the polypeptides, or the pharmaceutical agents of the present invention. The cancers to be targeted include, but are not limited to, testicular tumor, pancreatic cancer, bladder cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, small cell lung cancer and esophageal cancer.

Description

technical field [0001] This application claims the benefit of US Provisional Application No. 61 / 060,293, filed June 10, 2008, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. [0002] 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 effective as cancer vaccines, and drugs for treating and preventing tumors. Background of the invention [0003] It has been demonstrated that CD8-positive CTLs can recognize tumor-associated antigen (TAA)-derived epitope peptides 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 (Boon T, Int J Cancer 1993 May 8, 54(2): 177-80; Boon T & van der Bruggen P, J Exp Med 1996 Mar 1, 183(3):725-9) have discover...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

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

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