Therapeutic Vaccine MSI – MicOryx
Description
Several cancers arise from the lack of DNA mismatch repair (MMR) resulting in the accumulation of thousands of single deletions or insertions at coding microsatellites (MSI-H). These mutations lead to the inactivation of specific proteins and to the expression of frameshift peptides (FSPs). These FSPs are tumor-specific antigens, which are constantly expressed.
Cancers with MSI-H mutations include 10-15 % of colorectal cancers, 20-25 % of endometrial cancers, 25-30 % of upper urinary tract cancers, 15-20 % of intestinal gastric cancers and 5-10% of pancreatic cancers.
In patients with MSI-H colorectal cancer, humoral and cellular immune responses against FSPs occur spontaneously. In healthy people, such immune responses have not been observed.
Mode of Action
The observation that FSP expression triggers specific immune reactions in patients is the basis of the vaccination approach with therapeutic vaccine MSI using a cocktail of three synthetic FSPs, AIM2(-1), HT001(-1) and TAF1B(-1) to prevent outgrowth or to destroy MSI-H tumors.
More information on the collaboration with the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ)