Sperm protein (Sp17) is an attractive target for ovarian cancer (OC) vaccines because of its over-expression in primary as well as in metastatic lesions, at all stages of the disease.Our studies suggest that a Sp17-based vaccine Collections can induce an enduring defense against OC development in C57BL/6 mice with ID8 cells, following prophylactic and therapeutic treatments.This is the first time that a mouse counterpart of a cancer testis antigen (Sp17) was shown to be expressed in an OC mouse model, and that vaccination against this antigen significantly controlled tumor growth.
Our study shows that the CpG-adjuvated Sp17 vaccine overcomes the issue of immunologic tolerance, the major barrier to the development of effective immunotherapy for OC.Furthermore, this study provides a better understanding of OC biology by showing that Th-17 cells activation and contemporary immunosuppressive T-reg cells inhibition is required for vaccine efficacy.Taken together, these results indicate that prophylactic and therapeutic vaccinations can induce long-standing protection against OC and delay tumor growth, suggesting that this strategy may provide additional treatments of human OC and the prevention of disease onset in women with a family Upper Spray Arm history of OC.