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

HPV几乎存在于所有宫颈癌中，估计有99.7%，某些类型的HPV的致癌潜力已经被清楚地证明。HPV-16可以在大约50%的宫颈鳞状细胞癌中检测到。HPV-16的E6和E7基因编码的癌蛋白可以使人类角质形成细胞永生。E6和E7蛋白的持续表达对宫颈癌细胞的生长和致瘤性是必要的。HPV-E6和-E7在宫颈癌中选择性地保留和表达。因此，它们是免疫治疗的有吸引力的靶点。大多数性生活活跃的女性最终都会接触到HPV，但没有数据表明健康女性和宫颈癌患者在免疫反应方面的潜在差异。我们研究了用HPV-16E7多肽和自体树突状细胞(DC)体外刺激能否从患者和健康女性的外周血单个核细胞(PBMC)中诱导HPV特异性CD8+CTL反应。这项研究表明，两组人的特异性CTL反应频率几乎相似，表明两组人都有免疫反应的能力。

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.