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15 May 2008
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BCG prostate cancer immunotherapy hope
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MedWire News: The tuberculosis vaccine Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) can be engineered to express molecules specific to the prostate, potentially making it a useful immunotherapeutic vaccine against prostate cancer, say US investigators.
There is a lack of curative treatments for metastatic prostate cancer. However, prostate cancer is an ideal candidate for immunotherapy due to the presence of organ-specific molecules, the nonessential nature of the prostate gland, and the lack of response to treatment of the primary tumor.
Noting that recombinant BCG is a potent immunologic adjuvant treatment and has been tested for several types of cancer, Jan Geliebter, from New York Medical College in Valhalla, and colleagues created plasmids containing the pMM7 expression vector, and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) DNA.
These plasmids were then electroporated into Escherichia coli to form prostate-specific cDNAs, which were then incorporated into a strain of BCG.
The results showed that the entire coding region of PSA was cloned into pMM7 and, after electroporation into BCG, two clones were identified that expressed PSA. The entire coding region of PSMA was also cloned and, again, two BCG clones that expressed PSMA were identified.
Further analysis revealed that recombinant BCG expressed approximately 25 ng PSA per 1 µg of protein in recombinant BCG bacterial lysates, along with 112 pg PSMA, the researchers report in the Prostate Journal.
Commenting on the findings, along with those of a previous study indicating that transgenic BALB/c mice that express human PSA are able to mount a cytotoxic immune response against PSA, the researchers say: "Thus, the induction of anti-PSA or anti-PSMA immune responses in prostate cancer patients with a recombinant BCG immunotherapeutic vaccine may be feasible."
Prostate J 2008; 3: 92-97
http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1525-1411.2001.32002.x
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