Gene Painting as a Simple Method for Vaccinating Animals Against Breast Cancer Micro-Metastases

摘要

We are developing a simple and effective method for the delivery of cancer vaccines by noninvasive vaccination onto the skin (NlVS) using a patch. The hypothesis is that a non invasive vaccine patch can elicit specific immune responses to tumor-associated antigens with resultant eradication of limited numbers of tumor cells in animals with low tumor burden breast cancer. In these studies, we have elicited anti-CEA antibodies by topical application of an adenoviruses vector encoding CEA. Furthermore, animals immunized by this novel vaccination modality were well protected against a mammary tumor cell line expressing CEA. When compared to other means of immunization including intramuscular injection of DNA and intranasal inoculation of adenovirus vectors, the skin-targeted vaccine patch appeared to be more protective in a disease setting, probably due to the immunocompetence of the outer layer of skin where antigens were expressed. We envision that patch-based vaccination may emerge as an important technique for the administration of vaccines because the procedure is simple, effective, economical, painless, and safe. It may also boost vaccine coverages due to patient comfort.