Abstract
Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is a human glycoprotein involved in cellular adhesion and expressed during human fetal development. Although expression of CEA largely ceases prior to birth, several human epithelial cancers, including colorectal, gastric, squamous esophageal, and breast carcinomas have been known to overexpress CEA, suggesting its potential as an immunotherapeutic target. Using a transgenic mouse model constitutively expressing human CEA in a spatiotemporal manner as a self-protein and a syngeneic mouse colon cancer cell line, MC38-CEA, overexpressing CEA, we tested the potential of a novel genetic immunotherapy approach against CEA-expressing tumors, using recombinant adeno-associated virus vector encoding CEA (rAAV-CEA) and appropriately timed immune adjuvant application. Results of the study demonstrated breaking of immune tolerance for CEA with this vaccine regimen and an anti-tumor response, resulting in tumor-free survival. Furthermore, tumor challenge of CEA-vaccinated mice with parental MC38 cells not expressing CEA did not result in protection from tumor development, confirming that the protection against tumor development is CEA specific. The study illustrates the feasibility of utilizing rAAV vectors in combination with an immunostimulatory adjuvant to break tolerance to weakly immunogenic self-antigens and for an anti-tumor response.