The efficacy and mechanism of CD020 on the induction of specific immune responses against HPV-related cancer

Abstract

Abstract Virus infections may account for the development of several cancers, such as HPV16/18 are known to cause around 70% of cervical cancer cases. Until now, several immunotherapeutic approaches for virus-induced cancer are under development. Peptide-based vaccines have several advantages over conventional whole-protein vaccines in terms of purity, lot-to-lot consistency, production costs, and high antigenic specificity. However, the use of peptide antigens in vaccine development has been hampered by problems, such as weak immunogenicity coupled with a paucity of potent adjuvants. Specific T cell immune response is crucial for anti-tumor immunity. CD020 is a compound derived from the Chinese herbal medicine (CHM) of Hedyotis diffusa Willd. However, the efficacy and mechanism of CD020 on the induction of specific immune responses against cancer are still unclear. Therefore, we aimed to investigate whether CD020 can modulate specific T cell responses to apply for the development of a cancer vaccine. We have identified that CD020 could increase expression of maturation cytokines and activation markers of BM-DCs and induce specific T cell responses. Furthermore, in a murine TC-1 tumor-bearing model, we found that the CD020 could act as an adjuvant to induce cellular immune responses and anti-tumor effect in the peptide vaccine strategy. We suggested that immune-stimulator CD020 combined with cancer vaccine endows them with increased immunologic activity, which may be used to bypass the requirement for the conditional adjuvant. Further delineation of the mechanism may provide new clues for vaccination strategy.