Personalized Neoantigen Cancer Vaccine

Cancer is a serious threat to human health and because of its rapid development and swift transmissibility, it is usually difficult to treat once it is discovered. At the same time, different individuals' different manifestations and responses to the same type of tumor make treatment for a particular type of tumor likely to be ineffective for some patients, which also increases the difficulty of cancer treatment. The discovery of neoantigen brings hope to the preparation of individualized vaccines. Creative Biolabs has extensive experience in oncology vaccine research and we have a wealth of strategies and services to meet your needs in cancer vaccine research.

Neoantigen Vaccine

Non-mutated tumor-associated antigens and mutant antigens that present only in tumor cells are general targets for cancer vaccines. The latter are also called neoantigens and because of their presence only in cancer cells, there are no central tolerance and autoimmunity concerns. Such tumor-specific antigens can be derived from post-translational modifications, viral proteins, and somatic mutations. As knowing that even the same type of tumor varies widely depending on the specific circumstances of each individual, fully individualized therapy is the best way for each cancer patient. Personalized neoantigens are the best option to realize this objective.

The preparation process of personalized neoantigen vaccine includes 1) extracting tumor biopsies from the patient, then sequencing the DNA/RNA exome and analyzing the data by computer program to determine mutanome; 2) using predictive algorithm to screen mutations obtained from sequencing to determine the most immunogenic antigens; 3) artificially synthesizing possible peptides elucidated by the algorithms and assessing their affinity for binding to the corresponding HLA; 4) peptide manufacturing and purification as well as formulation. The correct prediction and selection of epitopes are crucial to the successful design of individualized cancer vaccines throughout the preparation.

Fig.1 Workflow of the personalized neoantigen peptide vaccine.

Personalized Neoepitope mRNA Cancer Vaccine Platform

In the context of neoantigen-based cancer vaccines, synthetic long peptides (SLP) or mRNA/DNA are commonly used. Kreiter and colleagues discovered that most non-synonymous cancer mutations are immunogenic when delivered by mRNA and are primarily recognized by CD4⁺ T cells. And an mRNA vaccine encoding neoantigens was found to be able to control tumor growth in the B16-F10 melanoma and CT26 colon cancer mouse models.

Modular NeoVax Platform for Cancer Vaccine

NeoVax takes advantage of tumor-specific property of tumor neoantigens. Composed of a targeting module and a tumor neoantigen module, vaccine developed through NeoVax platform is able to target and bind to APCs, and mediate the maturation of APCs to initiate immune responses. The design increases the efficiency of internalized neoantigens’ presentation to helper T cells and cytotoxic T cells and enhances the intensity of the immune response.

Synthetic Long Peptides (SLPs) Based Neoantigen Cancer Vaccines

Strong specificity of neoantigen for cancer cells and their potential for anti-tumor makes neoantigen-based cancer vaccine development strategies widely proposed and validated, and synthetic long peptides (SLPs) are one of them. Such antigenic peptides can function directly as T cell epitopes, with extra advantages of low toxicity, simple synthesis, and low production cost.

Dendritic Cell (DCs) Based Neoantigen Cancer Vaccines

Synthetic long peptides (SLPs) and ex vivo-pulsed DC-based neoantigen vaccines are two representative methods to deliver selected neoantigen to professional antigen-presenting cells (APCs) to elicit robust and potent anti-cancer T cell responses. Results of a small clinical trial of such vaccine showed the increased strength of the existing neoantigen-specific immune response in patients after receiving peptide-pulsed mature DCs.

Biomaterial-assisted Neoantigen Cancer Vaccines

Using biological materials to deliver neoantigen cancer vaccines is a new and promising concept, and biomaterials have been widely used in the delivery of vaccines due to their ability to protect antigens and adjuvant molecules. Studies show that intra-tumor injection of poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) nanoparticles can capture neoantigens, promoting their internalization and antigen presentation.

AI-aided Analysis Platform for Prediction of Tumor Neoantigen

AI-aided analysis platform developed by Creative Biolabs is an accurate HLA-I epitope prediction algorithm that could be used to optimize the identification of neoantigen and provide key technical support for the development of personalized cancer vaccines. This neural network algorithm can detect the mutant peptides generated by multiple mutations at the same time.

High-efficient Neoantigen In Vitro Evaluation Platform

Neoantigen in vitro evaluation platform developed by Creative Biolabs is an auxiliary platform of its innovative neoantigen prediction algorithm and aims to evaluate and verify the predicted neoantigen. Three components of this platform confer it with ability to reproduce the immune response triggered by natural processes in a laboratory environment and achieve more accurate identification of neoantigen as well as ensure the safety and effectiveness of tumor neoantigen.

Adoptive Neoantigen-activated T Cell Transfer Therapy

Compared with CAR-T technology, neoantigen-activated T-cell adoptive therapy is a strictly personalized treatment paradigm, which has the advantages of a wider scope of application, higher treatment efficiency, and fewer side effects. Autologous T cells with innate anti-tumor activity make this therapy more accurate, clear tumor cells in the body more quickly, avoid immune rejection reactions, shun cytokine release syndrome, and are more secure and reliable.

NeoTCR-T Platform- T Cells with Tumor Neoantigen-specific T Cell Receptors

The NeoTCR-T platform is a fruit of Creative Biolabs’ advanced neoantigen prediction platform and neoantigen in vitro evaluation platform, making the production of personalized TCR-T products against tumor neoantigen more efficient. The NeoTCR-T platform makes up for the shortboard of the universal TCR-T that targets the widely existing TAAs. Furthermore, upon modification, we can make NeoTCR- T recognizes more targets and further enhances its scope of application and lethality.

The treatment of cancer has always been the focus of researchers. The concept of individualized therapy is a promising strategy for conquering cancer, and the neoantigen vaccine is a representative solution. Creative Biolabs applies its extensive experience in vaccine research to the development of cancer vaccines and has established a systematic neoantigen vaccine development service system to provide the most comprehensive and reliable technical support for cancer vaccine researchers worldwide.

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