最新一期的《自然·醫(yī)學》（Nature Medicine）發(fā)表文章表示，用于預防乳腺癌的疫苗研究有了重大進展，并將于2年內(nèi)開始進行臨床試驗,。
該疫苗由美國俄亥俄州克利夫蘭醫(yī)院的Vincent Tuohy教授研發(fā),。與通常以病毒活動周期為靶向的疫苗不同,，Tuohy教授從免疫學的角度出發(fā),，對α-乳清蛋白抗原對乳腺癌的作用進行了研究，該抗原可以激發(fā)人體免疫系統(tǒng)對α-乳清蛋白產(chǎn)生特異性的免疫作用,。由于α-乳清蛋白僅見于乳腺癌患者和處于哺乳階段的女性,，因此，α-乳清蛋白抗原對乳腺癌具有防治作用,。
目前,，該疫苗已完成動物實驗，而結(jié)果令人驚奇：在所選取的易患乳腺癌的小鼠中,，那些接種了含有α-乳清蛋白抗原的疫苗的小鼠均沒有發(fā)生乳腺癌,，而沒有接受該疫苗的小鼠則全部發(fā)生了乳腺癌,。此外，該疫苗還可以減小已形成的乳腺癌,。如果能在臨床階段獲得類似的研究結(jié)果,，這將是乳腺癌防治過程中最具有里程碑意義的進展，人類從此可以消滅這個女性的“頭號殺手”,。同時,，從免疫學角度出發(fā)的新觀點也為其他疫苗的研發(fā)提供了新思路。
Tuohy教授表示,，由于α-乳清蛋白不僅見于乳癌細胞,，也出現(xiàn)在哺乳婦女的乳腺組織，因此,，哺乳期女性不能接種這種疫苗。不過,，患癌風險性較高的40多歲的婦女哺乳幾率很低,，因此，該疫苗有其廣闊的應用前景,。
研究者表示,，希望盡快開展臨床研究，以評估該疫苗的安全性和劑量,。(生物谷Bioon.com)
關于乳腺癌最新研究進展
The Lancet：控制環(huán)境因素可有效降低乳腺癌的發(fā)病率
CCR：西蘭花富含抗乳腺癌物質(zhì)可殺死乳腺癌干細胞
Nature Biotechnology ：用反義RNA技術預防乳腺癌細胞擴散
Nature Cell Biology ：miR-9可控制乳腺癌擴散
生物谷推薦原文出處：
Nature Medicine doi:10.1038/nm.2161
An autoimmune-mediated strategy for prophylactic breast cancer vaccination
Ritika Jaini,Pavani Kesaraju,Justin M Johnson,Cengiz Z Altuntas,Daniel Jane-wit& Vincent K Tuohy
Department of Immunology, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
Ritika Jaini, Pavani Kesaraju, Justin M Johnson, Cengiz Z Altuntas, Daniel Jane-wit & Vincent K Tuohy
Department of Biology, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
Pavani Kesaraju & Vincent K Tuohy
Although vaccination is most effective when used to prevent disease, cancer vaccine development has focused predominantly on providing therapy against established growing tumors1. The difficulty in developing prophylactic cancer vaccines is primarily due to the fact that tumor antigens are variations of self proteins and would probably mediate profound autoimmune complications if used in a preventive vaccine setting2. Here we use several mouse breast cancer models to define a prototypic strategy for prophylactic cancer vaccination. We selected α-lactalbumin as our target vaccine autoantigen because it is a breast-specific differentiation protein expressed in high amounts in the majority of human breast carcinomas3, 4, 5 and in mammary epithelial cells only during lactation6, 7, 8, 9. We found that immunoreactivity against α-lactalbumin provides substantial protection and therapy against growth of autochthonous tumors in transgenic mouse models of breast cancer and against 4T1 transplantable breast tumors in BALB/c mice. Because α-lactalbumin is conditionally expressed only during lactation, vaccination-induced prophylaxis occurs without any detectable inflammation in normal nonlactating breast tissue. Thus, α-lactalbumin vaccination may provide safe and effective protection against the development of breast cancer for women in their post–child-bearing, premenopausal years, when lactation is readily avoidable and risk for developing breast cancer is high10.
