Another benefit of vaccinations
Childhood vaccination helps in the treatment of cancer, scientists have found
A new study by the University of Helsinki has shown for the first time how pre-immunization obtained with conventional childhood vaccines can be used to treat cancer more effectively. The results of the study are published in the journal Cancer Research (Tähtinen et al., Exploiting pre-existing immunity to enhance oncolytic cancer immunotherapy).
Finnish scientists from the University of Helsinki, in collaboration with Italian colleagues, conducted a study on mice, the results of which showed that if the animals had previously been vaccinated with any conventional vaccine, for example, against tetanus, when they developed a cancerous tumor, the effectiveness of anti-cancer therapy was significantly higher. The effect was achieved by improving the specific immune response. A new hybrid platform PeptiCRAd, developed at the University of Helsinki, was considered as a means against cancer.
The authors note in the article that their results are easy to verify in clinical trials, since the technique is based on the continued effect of immunity, laid down by any vaccines included in national vaccination programs around the world.
"This method can have a serious impact on existing immunotherapy protocols," the university's press release quotes the head of the study, Professor Vincenzo Cerullo (Vincenzo Cerullo).
Due to the wide coverage of international vaccination programs, the majority of the world's population is vaccinated against common pathogens, which contributes to the emergence of pathogen-specific immune memory. This makes it possible to deploy a much faster and more effective immune response when pathogenic microorganisms are re-detected. This so-called secondary response is stronger and faster than the first one.
The problem with existing cancer vaccines is that their effect is more like a primary than a secondary immune response.
"To overcome this limitation and turn the antitumor response into a secondary one, we have developed a hybrid antitumor therapeutic anti–cancer vaccine," says Cerullo. – Since their introduction, vaccines have made a significant contribution to public health by eliminating common deadly infections such as smallpox and plague. We decided that they could do even more and help us in the fight against cancer."
Based on the viral platform, Cerullo and his colleagues are developing therapeutic anti-cancer vaccines. One of them is called PeptiCRAd. In fact, it is a virus, to the surface of which specific tumor proteins are attached. This is done in order to trigger an immune response against the tumor. But it is necessary that the patient was vaccinated against this virus in childhood.
"We decided to modify the well–established PeptiCRAd platform in our laboratory by adding another set of peptides derived from pathogens that patients were vaccinated with, for example, tetanus or diphtheria," explains the scientist.
Drawing from the press release of Battle with the cancer: new avenues from childhood vaccines – VM.
"The main idea of this new hybrid PeptiCRAd platform is to take advantage of the already existing pathogen-specific immunological memory present in vaccinated people. This should strengthen the antitumor response by directing already existing immune T cells to the tumor," sums up Sara Feola, another of the authors of the study.
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