Dendritic cells transduced by a rearranged HPV-16 E7 DNA vaccine induces in vitro E7 wildtype-specific human T cells

Objective: An artificial („shuffled“) HPV-16 E7-gene (HPV-16 E7SH) was constructed, providing all potential cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) epitopes. The E7SH-gene is immunogenic in the murine system and able to induce tumor regression. In soft-agar transformation assays no transforming properties are detectable. To test for its immunogenicity in human initial in vitro studies were performed. Methods: Autologous monocyte-derived dendritic cells (DCs) were transfected by Amaxa nucleofection technology. Expression of the antigen was verified by RT-PCR and Western blotting. T-cell-lines specific for HPV-16 E7 were res…