Induction Of Effective Antitumor Immune Responses By A Novel DNA Vaccine Encoding Chemokine And Multiepitope Of Prostate Tumor Associate Antigens

To establish a more efficient treatment for immunotherapy against prostate tumor, we constructed a novel chemotactic antigen (chemo-antigen) DNA vaccine and investigated the antitumor effects of immunization with the vaccine via a gene gun as well as related immunological mechanism.Several DNA sequences encoding multiple cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) and T helper (Th) cell epitopes were selected from human prostate-specific antigen (hPSA), human prostate-specific membrane antigen (hPSM), and mouse prostatic acid phosphatase (mPAP) by computer. Using RT-PCR and PCR, these sequences were cloned and fused to create a novel fusion gene (namely 3P gene). Using 3P as a new Ag, we develop a novel DNA vaccination strategy that relies on colocalization of lymphocytes, encoding multiple epitopes, and the enhancement of DC antigen presentation. Specifically, 3P gene is linked to the human secondary lymphoid tissue chemokine (SLC, contain a leader sequence) at its 5' end and to human IgG Fc gene at its 3' end. SLC-3P-Fc genes were inserted into pcDNA3.1 to construct a DNA vaccine, designated pSLC-3P-Fc.The expression of pSLC-3P-Fc was confirmed in the transfected cells by...