Journal Article

Neoantigen vaccine: an emerging tumor immunotherapy

Zhang, Yijie, Li, Xiaoling, Mo, Yongzhen, Zeng, Zhaoyang, Guo, Can, Li, Yong, Wu, Pan, Xiong, Wei, Wu, Xu, Xiong, Fang, Wang, Yian, Li, Guiyuan, Peng, Miao

2019

Overview

Genetic instability of tumor cells often leads to the occurrence of a large number of mutations, and expression of non-synonymous mutations can produce tumor-specific antigens called neoantigens. Neoantigens are highly immunogenic as they are not expressed in normal tissues. They can activate CD4+ and CD8+ T cells to generate immune response and have the potential to become new targets of tumor immunotherapy. The development of bioinformatics technology has accelerated the identification of neoantigens. The combination of different algorithms to identify and predict the affinity of neoantigens to major histocompatibility complexes (MHCs) or the immunogenicity of neoantigens is mainly based on the whole-exome sequencing technology. Tumor vaccines targeting neoantigens mainly include nucleic acid, dendritic cell (DC)-based, tumor cell, and synthetic long peptide (SLP) vaccines. The combination with immune checkpoint inhibition therapy or radiotherapy and chemotherapy might achieve better therapeutic effects. Currently, several clinical trials have demonstrated the safety and efficacy of these vaccines. Further development of sequencing technologies and bioinformatics algorithms, as well as an improvement in our understanding of the mechanisms underlying tumor development, will expand the application of neoantigen vaccines in the future.

• Publisher: BioMed Central,BioMed Central Ltd,Springer Nature B.V,BMC
• Subject: Algorithms / Animals / Antigen (tumor-associated) / Antigens / Antigens, Neoplasm - genetics / Antigens, Neoplasm - immunology / Bioinformatics / Biomarkers, Tumor / Biomedical and Life Sciences / Biomedicine / Cancer / Cancer cells / Cancer Research / Cancer therapies / Cancer vaccines / Cancer Vaccines - immunology / Cancer Vaccines - therapeutic use / CD4 antigen / CD8 antigen / Chemotherapy / Clinical trials / Combined Modality Therapy / Computational biology / Dendritic cells / Genomes / Genomic instability / Histocompatibility / Humans / Immune checkpoint inhibitors / Immune response / Immune system / Immunogenicity / Immunotherapy / Immunotherapy - methods / Laboratories / Lymphocytes / Lymphocytes T / Malignancy / Medical prognosis / Medical research / Mutation / Neoantigen / Neoantigens / Neoplasms - etiology / Neoplasms - immunology / Neoplasms - therapy / Nucleic acids / Oncology / Peptides / Radiation therapy / Radiotherapy / Researchers / Response rates / Review / T cells / Technology / Tumor / Tumor antigens / Tumor cells / Tumors / Vaccine / Vaccines