Advancements in Prostate Cancer Immunotherapy
Advancements in prostate cancer immunotherapy harness the body's immune response to target prostate cancer cells, offering potential breakthroughs in treatment efficacy.
FREMONT, CA : Prostate cancer immunotherapy is a groundbreaking frontier for more effective and targeted cancer treatments. Significant advancements have propelled immunotherapy to the forefront of prostate cancer research and clinical practice in recent years. Unlike traditional treatments, such as surgery or chemotherapy, immunotherapy harnesses the body's immune system to recognise and combat cancer cells. This paradigm shift has paved the way for new therapeutic approaches, including immune checkpoint inhibitors, therapeutic vaccines, and adoptive cell therapies, offering further hope for patients with prostate cancer.
Microbial Vectors for Cancer Immunotherapy
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Various vaccine approaches utilise microbial vectors' capacity to transport foreign antigens for targeted immunotherapy. Engineered bacterial strains express cancer-specific antigens, cytokines, and prodrug-converting cytokines. Microbial vectors show efficacy in preclinical models for infectious disease and cancer due to their strong infectivity of antigen-presenting cells, inducing potent antitumor responses. However, the incomplete characterisation of these vaccine vectors' properties is constrained by broader utilisation.
Listeria Monocytogenes: While the clinical progress of bacteria-based vectors has typically trailed behind other vaccine approaches, Listeria monocytogenes stands out for active immunotherapy due to its unique characteristics. Notably, it can trigger both innate and adaptive immune responses. L. monocytogenes, with the ability to access both phagosomal and cytosolic compartments of antigen-presenting cells (APCs), facilitates the presentation of delivered antigens in association with MHC class I and class II molecules. This dual presentation enhances immune responses, making L. monocytogenes a compelling candidate for active immunotherapy.
PROSTVAC® VF: A new immunotherapy for prostate cancer employing a microbial vector is PROSTVAC®-VF. This vaccine utilises a 'prime-boost strategy,' incorporating vaccinia and fowlpox viral vectors expressing a PSA-targeted molecule and a triad of costimulatory molecules (B7.1, ICAM-1, and LFA-3) known as vaccinia-PSA-TRICOM and fowlpox-PSA-TRICOM vaccines. In this approach, the patient's immune system is initially primed with vaccinia-PSA-TRICOM, followed by a subsequent vaccination with fowlpox-PSA-TRICOM, enhancing the cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) immune response against PSA-expressing tumour cells.
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