Development of the immunotherapy targeting the cancer antigen CDCA5

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K15829
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Surgical dentistry
• Research Institution: Osaka University (2017); Kitasato University (2016)
• Principal Investigator: OKAMOTO MASATO 大阪大学, 薬学研究科, 寄附講座教授 (10243718)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 癌免疫療法 / 口腔癌 / CDCA5 / 癌ワクチン

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The prognosis of the patients with advanced oral cancer is very poor. Although immunotherapy of cancer is expected in recent years, its effect is still limited. We have found CDCA5 antigen which express specifically in oral cancer cells. We have clarified that the HLA class I-restricted, and HLA class II-restricted epitopes included in CDCA5 protein strongly induced CDCA5-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) and type I helper T cells (Th1), respectively, and that these cells elicited anti-tumor effect in the xenograft mouse model bearing the oral squamous cell carcinoma cell lines. Based on these results, we made the CDCA5 peptide in GMP grade, and are going to start the phase I clinical study to evaluate the safety and anti-cancer effects of these CDCA5 peptides. At the same time, we also succeeded in a cloning of a T-cell receptor (TCR) genes from the above CTL and Th1 cells, and made CDCA5 specific TCR-engineered T lymphocytes.

Free Research Field

口腔外科学