hTERT vaccine

An hTERT vaccine is a type of cancer immunotherapy designed to stimulate the immune system to recognize and destroy cells expressing human telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT). hTERT is the catalytic subunit of telomerase, an enzyme that maintains telomere length and is overexpressed in more than 85% of all human cancers, while being largely absent in normal adult tissues. This makes it a nearly universal tumor-associated antigen (TAA). Various platforms have been developed for hTERT vaccination, including synthetic long peptides (e.g., UV1, UCPVax), DNA plasmids (e.g., INVAC-1), and dendritic cell-based approaches. These vaccines aim to induce hTERT-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell responses to provide a graft-vs-tumor effect. They are often studied in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitors like PD-1 or CTLA-4 blockers to overcome tumor-induced immunosuppression.

Other names

telomerase vaccinehuman telomerase reverse transcriptase vaccine