A Chemically Induced Vaccine Strategy for Prostate Cancer

Abstract

Here we report the design and evaluation of a bifunctional, small molecule switch that induces a targeted immune response against tumors in vivo. A high affinity ligand for prostate specific membrane,antigen (PSMA) was conjugated to a hapten that binds dinitrophenyl (DNP)-specific antibodies.,When introduced into hu-PBL-NOD/SCID mice previously immunized with a KLH-DNP immunogen, this conjugate induced a targeted antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (AD CC) response to PSMA-expressing tumor cells in a mouse xenograft Model. The ability to-create a small molecule inducible antibody response against self antigens using endogenous non-autoreactive antibodies may provide advantages over the autologous immune response generated by conventional vaccines in certain therapeutic settings.