Cancer immunotherapy against head and neck cancer which targeting immune checkpoint ligand; PD-L1

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16H06609
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Otorhinolaryngology
• Research Institution: Asahikawa Medical College
• Principal Investigator: Nozaki-Hirata Yui 旭川医科大学, 大学病院, 医員 (60646066)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-08-26 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 頭頸部癌 / 腫瘍免疫 / 免疫チェックポイント分子 / PD-L1 / 癌ワクチン療法

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Recently, anti-programmed cell death-1 monoclonal antibody has yielded good clinical responses in recurrent and/or metastatic HNSCC patients. Therefore, programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) may be a favorable target molecule for cancer immunotherapy. Furthermore, PD-L1-expressing malignant cells could be targeted by PD-L1-specific CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocytes. However, it remains unclear whether CD4+ helper T lymphocytes (HTLs) recognize and kill tumor cells in a PD-L1-specific manner. Therefore, in this study, we designed an MHC class II binding peptide PD-L1241-265 using computer-based algorithms and assessed its potential to activate CD4+ HTLs from peripheral blood of healthy donors. PD-L1241-265-specific HTLs showed not only cytokine production but also cytotoxicity against tumor cells in a PD-L1-dependent manner and significantly inhibited growth of PD-L1-expressing human tumor cell lines after adoptive transfer into immunodeficient mice.

Free Research Field

耳鼻咽喉科・頭頸部外科