Bioven : Your Partner in Fighting Cancer

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EGF

The EGF vaccine has the potential to become one of the first vaccines in the world to be internationally approved for the treatment of lung cancer. The vaccine stimulates the patient’s immune system to generate neutralizing antibodies against epidermal growth factor (EGF), by binding to it and preventing it from interacting with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). EGFR-activated cell signalling pathways, which lead to uncontrolled proliferation, are thus blocked and the tumour’s rapid growth is slowed.

Below is a video that explains how the EGF Vaccine works.

TGF Alpha

The TGF alpha vaccine is composed of the TGF alpha bound to a carrier protein (P64K from Neisseria meningitides) which is administered together with an adjuvant (Montanide ISA 51). The TGF is another ligand found on the EGF receptor, which is related with an autocrine loop in the cancer cells.

The mechanism of this vaccine is very similar to that of the EGF vaccine. The difference in this case is that it will provoke a specific immune response as antibodies directed towards the TGF alpha that will bind this ligand avoiding its binding to the EGFR, followed by the activation of this receptor to 'initiate' the cell proliferation mechanisms. This vaccine is currently in the pre-clinical stage of development.

HER-1

The HER-1 vaccine is composed from the extracellular domain of the EGFR in a vehicle (VSSP) together with an adjuvant (Montanide IAS51).

It provokes an immune response towards the EGFR itself, which can be cytotoxic. The cell response directly targets cells that over-express the EGFR, while the antibody response specifically provokes anti-EGFR antibodies that block its binding with any of its ligands. The vaccine is currently in production process development. A Phase 1 trial, for testing its immunogenicity and safety, is scheduled to begin early 2009 in patients with advanced prostate cancer.