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  • Analysis of a cholera toxin B subunit (CTB) and human mucin 1 (MUC1) conjugate protein in a MUC1-tolerant mouse model.

Analysis of a cholera toxin B subunit (CTB) and human mucin 1 (MUC1) conjugate protein in a MUC1-tolerant mouse model.

Cancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII (2010-09-09)
Julia Pinkhasov, M Lucrecia Alvarez, Latha B Pathangey, Teresa L Tinder, Hugh S Mason, Amanda M Walmsley, Sandra J Gendler, Pinku Mukherjee
ABSTRACT

Since epithelial mucin 1 (MUC1) is associated with several adenocarcinomas at the mucosal sites, it is pertinent to test the efficacy of a mucosally targeted vaccine formulation. The B subunit of the Vibrio cholerae cholera toxin (CTB) has great potential to act as a mucosal carrier for subunit vaccines. In the present study we evaluated whether a MUC1 tandem repeat (TR) peptide chemically linked to CTB would break self-antigen tolerance in the transgenic MUC1-tolerant mouse model (MUC1.Tg) through oral or parenteral immunizations. We report that oral immunization with the CTB-MUC1 conjugate along with mucosal adjuvant, unmethylated CpG oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN) and interleukin-12 (IL-12) did not break self-antigen tolerance in MUC1.Tg mice, but induced a strong humoral response in wild-type C57BL/6 mice. However, self-antigen tolerance in the MUC1.Tg mouse model was broken after parenteral immunizations with different doses of the CTB-MUC1 conjugate protein and with the adjuvant CpG ODN co-delivered with CTB-MUC1. Importantly, mice immunized systemically with CpG ODN alone and with CTB-MUC1 exhibited decreased tumor burden when challenged with a mammary gland tumor cell line that expresses human MUC1.