@article{8759f3c68aa64177ba9eb8d9b6e45d58,
title = "Anti-tumor CD8+ T cell immunity elicited by HIV-1-based virus-like particles incorporating HPV-16 E7 protein",
abstract = "Here we report a novel strategy for the induction of CD8+ T cell adaptive immune response against viral and tumor antigens. This approach relies on high levels of incorporation in HIV-1 VLPs of a mutant of HIV-1 Nef (Nefmut) which can act as anchoring element for foreign proteins. By in vitro assay, we found that VLP-associated Nefmut is efficiently cross-presented by antigen presenting cells. Inoculation in mice of VLPs incorporating the HPV-16 E7 protein fused to Nefmut led to an anti-E7 CD8+ T cell response much stronger than that elicited by E7 recombinant protein inoculated with incomplete Freund's adjuvant and correlating with well-detectable anti-E7 CTL activity. Most relevantly, mice immunized with Nefmut-E7 VLPs developed a protective immune response against tumors induced by E7 expressing tumor cells. These results make Nefmut VLPs a promising candidate for new vaccine strategies focused on the induction of CD8+ T cell immunity.",
keywords = "CTLs, Cross-presentation, HIV-1 Nef, HPV-E7, Protein delivery, Virus-like particles",
author = "{Di Bonito}, Paola and Felicia Grasso and Stefania Mochi and Linda Petrone and Emanuele Fanales-Belasio and Arianna Mei and Armando Cesolini and Giuseppe Laconi and Heinke Conrad and Helga Bernhard and Dembek, {Claudia J.} and Antonio Cosma and Santini, {Stefano M.} and Caterina Lapenta and Simona Donati and Claudia Muratori and Colomba Giorgi and Maurizio Federico",
note = "Funding Information: This work was supported by grants from the AIDS project of the Ministry of Health, Rome, Italy. Recombinant HIV-1 Gag protein was obtained from NIH AIDS Research and Reference Reagent Program. We are indebted to Rosella Franconi (ENEA, Rome, Italy) for providing the plasmid carrying the E7 GGG open reading frame. We thank Maria Ferrantini, Department of Cell Biology and Neurosciences, Istituto Superiore di Sanit{\`a}, Rome, Italy, for helpful discussions and critically reading the manuscript and to Julia Neudorfer and Simone Allgayer for excellent technical assistance. We are indebted to Federica M. Regini for the excellent editorial assistance.",
year = "2009",
month = dec,
day = "5",
doi = "10.1016/j.virol.2009.09.012",
language = "English",
volume = "395",
pages = "45--55",
journal = "Virology",
issn = "0042-6822",
publisher = "Academic Press Inc.",
number = "1",
}