A Theoretical Approach for T-Lymphocyte Monitoring of Autologous Cancer Vaccine Therapy Using Autologous HLA-Class I and HLA-Class II Constructs

It is desirable to have in vitro surrogate endpoints that reflect changes in cellular immunity in patients who are undergoing treatment with anticancer, autologous, tumor-cell vaccines. The tetramer assay appears to be useful for monitoring T-lymphocyte responses to a single, specific, known tumor peptide antigen, but cell-based vaccines may express multiple tumor-associated antigens that are important in a host immune response to their own cancer. We describe a hypothetical alternative to the standard artificial tetramer assay, that has the potential to detect CD4+ and CD8+ T-lymphocytes that react with any peptides expressed in the context of HLA-class I or HLA-class II. Such an assay should enable monitoring for specific T-lymphocyte antitumor activity in patients being treated with patient specific, autologous, tumor- cell vaccines.