p53 peptide-loaded dendritic cell vaccine (University of Pittsburgh)

This autologous dendritic cell (DC)-based therapeutic vaccine was developed at the University of Pittsburgh for the treatment of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). The therapy involves isolating monocytes from a patient, maturing them into dendritic cells, and loading them with modified wild-type p53 peptides. Specifically, the vaccine utilizes HLA-class I p53-specific peptides for sequences 149-157 (modified T150L) and 264-272 (modified F270W), sometimes supplemented with helper peptides such as tetanus toxoid or p53 110-124. The vaccine is administered via intralymphatic injection into inguinal lymph nodes. Its primary mechanism is to leverage the antigen-presenting capability of dendritic cells to stimulate a potent and specific T-cell immune response against tumor cells that overexpress the p53 protein. A Phase I clinical trial demonstrated that the vaccine was safe, associated with favorable disease-free survival, and significantly decreased the levels of immunosuppressive regulatory T-cells (Tregs).

Other names

p53-specific DC vaccinep-53-specific DC vaccinep 53-specific DC vaccineautologous p53-pulsed dendritic cell vaccinevDC (p53)