Stephanie Hoppe

← Zurück zu Team - Ehemalige Labormitglieder

Identification of HPV16 T cell epitopes for HLA-A3, HLA-A11 and HLA-A24

The viral oncoproteins E6 and E7 are consistently expressed and required for maintenance of the malignant phenotype in human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated cancers. This makes them ideal targets for immunotherapy. It is known that cell-mediated immune responses are needed for clearing HPV infection. Peptide vaccination specifically elicits cytotoxic T cells (CTL), but is limited by the fact that T cell epitopes are HLA-restricted. A therapeutic vaccine that is applicable to everyone without prior HLA typing needs to contain epitopes for all HLA (super)types.

In this context, the goal of this project was to identify peptides for the HLA-A3/A11 and A24 supertypes from the most common oncogenic HPV type, HPV-16. To this end, HPV-16 E6 and E7 epitopes were predicted. Peptide binding assays for the above mentioned supertypes were performed, as well as specific immunoprecipitations. HPV-16 transformed cell lines of the respective HLA background were analyzed for prospective epitope presence by our targeted mass spectrometry approach. Identified peptides were tested for immunogenicity and their ability to induce CTL.