Modelling Vaccination Schedules for a Cancer Immunoprevention Vaccine Santo Motta1, Filippo Castiglione2, Pierluigi Lollini3 and Francesco Pappalardo*1,4
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Immunome Research BioMed Central Research Open Access Modelling vaccination schedules for a cancer immunoprevention vaccine Santo Motta1, Filippo Castiglione2, Pierluigi Lollini3 and Francesco Pappalardo*1,4 Address: 1Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Catania, Catania, Italy, 2Sezione di Cancerologia, Dipartimento di Patologia Sperimentale, University of Bologna, and Centro Interdipartimentale di Ricerche sul Cancro "Giorgio Prodi", Italy, 3Istituto per le Applicazioni del Calcolo, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Roma, Italy and 4Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Catania, Italy Email: Santo Motta - [email protected]; Filippo Castiglione - [email protected]; Pierluigi Lollini - [email protected]; Francesco Pappalardo* - [email protected] * Corresponding author Published: 07 October 2005 Received: 09 June 2005 Accepted: 07 October 2005 Immunome Research 2005, 1:5 doi:10.1186/1745-7580-1-5 This article is available from: http://www.immunome-research.com/content/1/1/5 © 2005 Motta et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract We present a systematic approach to search for an effective vaccination schedule using mathematical computerized models. Our study is based on our previous model that simulates the cancer vs immune system competition activated by tumor vaccine. This model accurately reproduces in-vivo experiments results on HER-2/neu mice treated with the immuno-prevention cancer vaccine (Triplex) for mammary carcinoma. In vivo experiments have shown the effectiveness of Triplex vaccine in protection of mice from mammary carcinoma. The full protection was conferred using chronic (prophylactic) vaccination protocol while therapeutic vaccination was less effcient. In the present paper we use the computer simulations to systematically search for a vaccination schedule which prevents solid tumor formation. The strategy we used for defining a successful vaccination schedule is to control the number of cancer cells with vaccination cycles. We found that, applying the vaccination scheme used in in-vivo experiments, the number of vaccine injections can be reduced roughly by 30%. 1 Introduction scopic tumors, but are ineffective against established, Tumor immunologists have long sought ways to turn large tumor masses. A similar situation is found in infec- experimental results into effective therapies for human tious immunity: prophylactic vaccines protect millions of cancer patients. The best results so far are provided by individuals worldwide from pathogens, whereas thera- using various monoclonal antibodies directed against peutic vaccines are mostly ineffective. Such results led tumor cells, which won approval from regulatory agencies some tumor immunologists to the idea that the effort and entered clinical practice. Other approaches, such as should be directed towards the development of prophy- therapeutic vaccines that aim at stimulating the immune lactic, rather than therapeutic, cancer vaccines [2]. Pro- response of the host against tumor cells, were much less phylactic vaccines against viruses that increase the risk of successful [1]. Experimental evidence clearly shows that cancer, such as hepatitis B virus (HBV) or papilloma virus vaccines elicit effective responses against early, micro- (HPV), have already shown a significant effcacy in Page 1 of 18 (page number not for citation purposes) Immunome Research 2005, 1:5 http://www.immunome-research.com/content/1/1/5 reducing cancer incidence [3,4]. The challenge is now to target antigen. p185neu was combined with the two non devise immunological strategies for the design of prophy- specific adjuvants, allogeneic class I major histocompati- lactic vaccines for prevention of those human cancers that bility complex (MHCI) glycoproteins and interleukin 12 are not related to viral infections. (IL-12). MHCI glycoproteins are responsible for some of the most intense immune responses observed during the Standard vaccines against viruses induce the primary rejection of allogeneic organ transplants. Unlike conven- response of the adaptive components of the immune sys- tional antigens, allogeneic MHCI molecules stimulate a tem against the non-self antigen in order to activate the relatively large fraction of all T cell clones, up to 10% of immune system memory which will then elicit the much the available repertoire. IL-12 is a cytokine normally pro- stronger secondary response when the antigen will enter duced by antigen presenting cells (APC) such as dendritic the body. There is no need to break self tolerance as the cells (DC) to stimulate T helper cells and other cells of the antigen is non self. immune system, such as natural killer cells (NK) [7]. IL-12 was initially administered systemically, but a more recent At variance tumor vaccines need to break tolerance of the formulation of the Triplex vaccine used genetically modi- tumor associated antigens (TAA) that otherwise would be fied vaccine cells transduced with IL-12 genes, thus allow- treated as self and not attacked by the immune system. ing cytokine production at locally high levels that more closely mimicked the natural release of IL-12 [8]. The vac- The effectiveness of tumor immuno-prevention was dem- cine cell (VC) that we will model here is similar to the lat- onstrated in the past ten years in several mouse models of ter one and consists of a HER-2/neu transgenic mammary tumor development. Tumors in these models are induced carcinoma cell allogeneic with respect to the host and either by chemical carcinogens or by transgenic expres- transduced with IL-12 genes. sion of oncogenes. Among the most thoroughly investi- gated is the HER-2/neu transgenic mouse model. HER-2/ A complete prevention of mammary carcinogenesis with neu is an oncogene involved in human breast and ovary the Triplex vaccine was obtained when vaccination cycles carcinomas. The protein product of HER-2/neu, p185neu, started at 6 weeks of age and continued for the entire dura- is a membrane tyrosine kinase that transduces prolifera- tion of the experiment, at least one year (chronic vaccina- tive signals. A deregulation of HER-2/neu, for example tion). One vaccination cycle consisted of four due to gene amplification, leads to uncontrolled cell pro- intraperitoneal administrations of non-replicating (mito- liferation. Over-expression of a rat HER-2/neu transgene mycin-treated) VC over two weeks followed by two weeks in mice was obtained using tissue-specific regulatory of rest [8]. We made various attempts at reducing the sequences derived from mammary tumor virus (MMTV) number of vaccination cycles, in particular we studied the long terminal repeats (LTR). Various transgenic mouse effects of just three cycles starting at 6 weeks of age (early lines were obtained using either a mutant, constitutively vaccination), or at 10 weeks of age (late vaccination), or at activated HER-2/neu gene or a normal, non mutated gene. 16 weeks of age (very late vaccination). Early vaccination Here we will refer to mice carrying the mutant oncogene, produced a significant delay in the onset of tumors, but all which are prone to a very aggressive mammary carcino- mice eventually succumbed to mammary carcinoma. Late genesis, invariably leading to the development of invasive vaccination was less effective than early vaccination, mammary carcinomas by the age of 6 months. The natural whereas the very late protocol was completely devoid of history of mammary carcinoma in HER-2/neu transgenic effect in comparison to untreated control mice (Figure 1). mice was thoroughly investigated and found to be remarkably similar to that of human breast cancer [5]. The question whether the Chronic protocol is the mini- Immuno-prevention of mammary carcinoma in HER-2/ mal vaccination protocol yielding complete protection neu transgenic mice was attempted using various immu- from tumor onset, or whether a lower number of vaccina- nological strategies, including cytokines, non-specific tion cycles would provide a similar degree of protection is stimulators of the immune response, and HER-2/neu spe- still an open question. Finding an answer to this question cific vaccines made of DNA, proteins, peptides, or whole via a biological solution would be too expensive in time cells. Most approaches achieved a delay of mammary car- and money as it would require an enormous number of cinogenesis, but a complete prevention of tumor onset experiments, each lasting at least one year. For this reason was not attained, particularly in the most aggressive we developed an accurate model of immune system tumor models [6]. We achieved the first complete success responses to vaccination and we use this model as a virtual at preventing mammary carcinoma in HER-2/neu trans- laboratory to search for effective vaccination protocols. The genic mice using a vaccine that combined three different paper is organized as follows: section §2 will introduce stimuli for the immune system. The first was p185neu, the general requirements needed to model the problem; protein product of HER-2/neu, which in this system is at section §3 describes in details our virtual laboratory, i.e. the same time the oncogene driving carcinogenesis and the model, its structure and biological details, and its Page 2 of 18 (page number not for citation purposes) Immunome Research 2005, 1:5 http://www.immunome-research.com/content/1/1/5 task in an extremely effective and effcient way. Complex- ity, in this framework, is driven by the fact that interac- tions are developed at different scales (i.e. the cellular dynamics is ruled by sub-cellular interactions) and differ- ent mechanisms operate on the same subject (mechanical for the dynamics and biological for the immune competi- tion). The state of the art of the immune mechanisms from the view point of molecular biology are described in specialized literature [9-11]. Owing to the rapid progress of biological knowledge this is rapidly changing.