Peptide vaccines are safe, and aim to elicit and expand tumor-specific immunity so as to\neradicate tumors. However, achieving strong and long-lasting anti-tumor immunity with peptide\nvaccines for the antigen-specific treatment of cancer is challenging, in part because their efficacy\ndepends on strong adjuvants or immunomodulators. We approached this problem by conjugating\nan epitope-based cancer vaccine with a lipidated sequence (an immunomodulator) to elicit a strong\nimmune response. Lipidated and non-lipidated polyepitope proteins were generated that contained\nthe universal T helper cell epitope (pan-DR), B cell epitopes, and the extended loop sequence of\nextracellular domain 2 of tumor-associated antigen L6 (TAL6). We show that the lipidated polyepitope\ncancer vaccine can activate bone marrow-derived dendritic cells, and trigger effective antigen-specific\nantibody and T helper cell responses, more effectively than the non-lipidated vaccine. Moreover,\npotent T cell immune responses were elicited in mice inoculated with the lipidated polyepitope\ncancer vaccine, providing protective antitumor immunity in mice bearing TAL6 tumors. Our study\ndemonstrates that a lipidated polyepitope cancer vaccine could be employed to generate potent\nanti-tumor immune responses, including humoral and cellular immunity, which could be beneficial\nin the treatment of TAL6+ cancer.
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