Cervical Cancer Vaccine Candidate Combines Prophylactic and Therapeutic Protection

According to a recent article published by npj vaccines, infection with high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) is widely recognized as the primary cause of cervical and other malignant cancers.

While there are six licensed prophylactic vaccines against HPV, none of them show any significant therapeutic effect on pre-existing infections.

Thus, a prophylactic vaccine endowed with therapeutic activity would afford protection regardless of the vaccine recipient's HPV infection status.

The key to eliminating virus-infected cells lies in anti-early HPV-encoded proteins, particularly anti-E6 or anti-E7 T-cell responses. 

This article describes the refinement and further potentiation of a dual-purpose HPV nanoparticle vaccine (cPANHPVAX) relying on eight different HPV L2 peptide epitopes and the E7 oncoantigens from HPV16 and 18.

cPANHPVAX not only induces anti-HPV16 E7 cytotoxic T-cell responses in C57BL/6 mice, but also anti-HPV18 E7 T-cell responses in transgenic mice with the A2.DR1 haplotype.

These cytotoxic responses add to a potent, broad-coverage humoral (HPV-neutralizing) response.

cPANHPVAX safety was further improved by deleting the pRb-binding domains of E7.

These researchers wrote, 'this dual-purpose vaccine holds great potential for clinical translation as an immune-treatment capable of targeting active infections as well as established HPV-related malignancies, thus benefiting both uninfected and infected individuals.'

Zhao, X., Zhang, Y., Trejo-Cerro, O. et al. A safe and potentiated multi-type HPV L2-E7 nanoparticle vaccine with combined prophylactic and therapeutic activity. npj Vaccines 9, 119 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41541-024-00914-z.