Toward the development of prophylactic and therapeutic human papillomavirus type-16 lipopeptide vaccines

Four lipid-core peptide systems were synthesized using stepwise solid-phase peptide synthesis, incorporating a sequence from the human papillomavirus type-16 (HPV-16) E7 protein (E7(44-62)), for the purpose of developing vaccines against HPV-16 associated cervical cancer. D-Mannose was conjugated to the vaccine in order to investigate whether the targeting of dendritic cell mannose receptors would improve vaccine efficacy. The ability of the vaccines to clear or reduce the size of HPV-16 associated tumors was assessed in C57BL/6 (H-2(b)) mice using the TC-1 HPV-16 tumor model. Overall, significant reductions in the size of TC-1 tumors were observed in the mouse model, with the conjugation of mannose to these vaccines demonstrated to clear or reduce the size of TC-1 tumors to a greater extent than non-mannose-containing vaccines (37 out of 40 versus 21 out of 30 tumors cleared, respectively)