Immune responses in patients with cervical cancer using human papillomavirus (HPV) 16 E7 peptides and autologous dendritic cells

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HPV is present in virtually all cervical cancers, an estimated 99.7 percent and the oncogenic potential of certain HPV types has been clearly demonstrated. HPV-16 can be detected in approximately 50% of squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix. The E6 and E7 genes of HPV-16 encode for oncoproteins that can immortalize human keratinocytes. Continued expression of the E6 and E7 proteins has been shown to be necessary for the growth and tumorigenicity of cervical carcinoma cells. HPV-E6 and-E7 are selectively retained and expressed in cervical cancer. Therefore they are attractive targets for the immunotherapy. Most sexually active women are eventually exposed to HPV, but there is no data about potential difference in immune response among healthy women and patients with cervical cancer. We have investigated whether HPV-specific CD8+CTL responses can be induced from the human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of patients and healthy women by in vitro stimulation using an HPV-16 E7 peptide and autologous dendritic cells (DC). This study showed that the frequency of specific CTL response was almost similar for both, suggesting that the ability of immune responses is present in both groups.