Journal of Carcinogenesis & Mutagenesis

Abstract

Proteolytically-cleaved Fragments of Cell-surface Proteins from Live Tumor Cells Stimulate Anti-tumor Immune Response In vitro

Elena E Balashova and G. Lokhov

Antigens expressed on the surface of cancer cells are accessible targets for both humoral and cell-mediated immune responses, and are therefore potential candidates for vaccine development. Treating surface of live human breast adenocarcinoma cells (MCF-7) with trypsin yields a digest that contains 0.7% of total cell protein. Despite this difference, the trypsin digest stimulates in cytotoxicity assays anti-tumor response which kills 10-40% more cancer cells than those stimulated with cells themselves. From these results, we concluded that trypsin digest obtained from live cancer cells contains the essential antigens to induce an immune-mediated anti-tumor effect, and therefore, is candidate for anti-tumor vaccine development.