Investigation of the Optimal Prime Boost Spacing Regimen for a Cancer Therapeutic Vaccine Targeting Human Papillomavirus

Simple Summary The selection of a therapeutic vaccine schedule can influence the magnitude, efficacy, and durability of immune responses. This study aims to test different prime-boost intervals using a model vaccine in a well-established tumor model system to investigate how the timing of repetitive antigen exposure impacts the induction of effector and memory T cells. Identifying the vaccine schedule most likely to induce durable protective anti-tumor immunity will facilitate decisions made to balance the induction of highly cytotoxic effector T cells and the generation of long-term immunologic memory. Therapeutic vaccine studies should be designed to elicit durable, high magnitude, and efficacious T cell responses, all of which can be impacted by the choice of the vaccination schedule. Here, we compare different prime-boost intervals (PBI) in a human papillomavirus (HPV) model using a HPV16E7E6 Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus replicon particle (VRP) vaccination to address the optimal boosting schedule, quality of immune response, and overall in vivo efficacy. Six different vaccine regimens were tested with each group receiving booster vaccinations at different time intervals. Analysis of T-cell responses demonstrated a significant HPV16 E7 specific CD8(+) T cell response with at minimum a one-week PBI between antigen re-exposure. Significant E7-specific in vivo cytotoxicity was also observed with longer PBIs. Additionally, longer PBIs led to an enhanced memory recall response to tumor challenge, which correlated with differential expansion of T cell memory subsets. Our findings imply that when using alphavirus vector platforms as a vaccination strategy, a one-week PBI is sufficient to induce high magnitude effector T cells with potent anti-tumor activity. However, longer PBIs lead to enhanced long-term protective anti-tumor immunity. These findings have implications for therapeutic vaccine clinical trials in which shorter intervals of prime-boost regimens may lead to suboptimal durable immune responses.