p16^INK4a Based Cancer Vaccine

Creative Biolabs is a well-known vaccine development specialist in the industry and has more than 10 years of experience and accumulation in vaccine research and development. The development of tumor vaccines is our current key project. In this field, we conducted in-depth and extensive research and proposed a series of experimentally validated strategies and techniques.

p16^INK4a and Its Potential in Developing a Cancer Vaccine

The full name of p16^INK4a is cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 2A or multiple tumor suppressor 1, also known as p16, which is a tumor suppressor protein whose coding gene is CDKN2A. The function of p16^INK4a is to regulate the cell cycle, specifically to regulate the cell cycle by slowing down the progression of cells from the G1 phase to the S phase, and thus also exhibits tumor suppressing ability. With the increase of age, p16^INK4a with a significant increase in expression was found in most mouse tissues as well as in human skin and kidney tissues. Overexpression of p16^INK4a was also found in senescent fibroblasts, all of which further demonstrate the important role of p16^INK4a in inhibiting cancer and causing senescence. Therefore, the expression of p16^INK4a is down-regulated in many tumors. Interestingly, however, in other tumors, overexpression of p16^INK4a was also observed. The result of this contradiction may be due to the fact that in addition to its function of regulating the cell cycle, p16^INK4a also plays a role in apoptosis, cell invasion and angiogenesis.

Fig.1 Senescence as a central hallmark of aging. (Domhnall McHugh and Jesús Gil, 2018)

p16^INK4a Based Cancer Vaccine

As an inhibitor of cancer, p16^INK4a has varying degrees of inactivation in approximately half of human cancers. This is a critical event in certain types of cancer in the course of carcinogenesis. However, in HPV-associated benign tumors and cancers such as cervical cancer, p16^INK4a is over-expressed, and this phenomenon is currently used to diagnose such cancers, and the fact is believed to be associated with high-risk HPV infection. There is a view that oncogene-induced senescence (OIS) is a key barrier to malignant transformation of tumors. Therefore, restoring genes that cause aging may be able to induce cell senescence and control their infinite proliferation. In this context, therapy with the strategy of restoring p16^INK4a will likely eliminate cancer. In addition, normal cells rarely express p16^INK4a, or even if the protein is expressed, these cells will age immediately. In high-risk HPV-related cancer patients, the researchers found that the body can spontaneously produce humoral and cellular immune responses against p16^INK4a, a phenomenon that has not been observed in healthy populations. This provides a theoretical basis for the design of cancer vaccines targeting p16^INK4a. Creative Biolabs conducted further research and validation of these findings. Combined with our experience in vector based vaccines, peptide vaccines, nucleic acid vaccines, and DC cell vaccines, designing tumor vaccines with p16^INK4a as a target will be another very effective strategy for cancer treatment.

Creative Biolabs has unquestioned expertise in vaccine development. More than ten years of development has not only made us more proficient and in-depth in the development of vaccines, but also allowed us to further accumulate a large amount of experience in the process of continuously serving our customers, thus providing an unparalleled ability to solve complex vaccine development problems. In the field of cancer vaccine development, we also have far more qualifications than other CROs.

Reference

1. McHugh D, Gil J. Senescence and aging: Causes, consequences, and therapeutic avenues. J Cell Biol. 2018, 217(1): 65-77.

All of our products can only be used for research purposes. These vaccine ingredients CANNOT be used directly on humans or animals.