Cancer Vaccines against POTE for Treating Solid Tumors
POTE is a novel tumor antigen expressed in a variety of cancers including breast, prostate, colon, lung, ovary, and pancreas cancers. POTE has limited expression in normal tissues and therefore a specific target for cancer treatments, including immunotherapy. The researchers seek statements of capability or interest from parties interested in collaborative research to further develop, evaluate, or commercialize immunogenic peptides.
Antigen-specific cancer immunotherapy often relies on identification of epitopes expressed by cancer cells that can targeted by cytotoxic T cells (CTL). However, the CTL repertoire against high-affinity cancer epitopes is often ineffective because cancer epitopes may share a similar structure to natural "self" antigens. As a result, cancer cells are not recognized by CTLs and destroyed. The enhanced POTE epitopes induce a stronger immune response than natural responses. These modified epitopes are more effective at inducing CTL against POTE expressing cancer cells and have greater potential to serve as cancer vaccine targets.