A MUC1/IL-18 DNA vaccine induces anti-tumor immunity and increased survival in MUC1 transgenic mice

MUC1 (mucin 1) is a tumor-associated antigen that is overexpressed in many adenocarcinomas. Active immunotherapy targeting tumors expressing MUC1 could have great treatment value. MUC1 DNA vaccines were evaluated in MUC1 transgenic (MUC1.Tg) mice challenged with MC38/MUC1+ tumor cells. Vaccination with MUC1 plasmid DNA (pMUC1) alone was insufficient to induce tumor protection. However, co-administration of pMUC1 with a plasmid encoding murine interleukin-18 (pmuIL-18) resulted in significant tumor protection and survival after tumor challenge. Protection was durable in the absence of additional vaccination, as demonstrated by continued protection of vaccinated mice following tumor rechallenge. Mice surviving challenges with MC38/MUC1+ cells showed significant protection after challenge with MUC1− MC38 tumor cells, suggesting that these mice had developed immune responses to epitopes shared between the tumor cell lines. Antibody-mediated depletion of lymphocyte subsets demonstrated that protection was due largely to CD4+ T cells. This work demonstrates that a naked DNA vaccine can break tolerance to MUC1 and induce an immune response capable of mediating both significant protection from tumor challenge and increased survival.