Tumor-associated carbohydrate antigens (TACAs) on the surface of tumors are being extensively studied as good anti-cancer epitopes, CD BioGlyco's researchers are working on the synthesis of these cancer antigens to help clients develop potential vaccine candidates against cancer.

Carbohydrate-based Anticancer Vaccine

Cancer progression is characterized by altered glycosylation and overexpression of glycans, namely TACAs on the surface of tumors, which are potential candidates for cancer immunotherapy. TACAs are divided into four categories, globo glycans such as Globo H, Gb3, and Gb5, etc are overexpressed on the surface of tumors in the breast, prostate, ovarian, and colon; mucin-related glycans such as Thomsennouveau (Tn), Thomsen-Friendreich (TF), sialic acid Tn (STn) are expressed in epithelial cancer tissues; gangliosides such as GD2, GD3, GM2 and GM3 are overexpressed in renal, lungs and prostate cancer cells, and finally, Lewis antigen classes are distributed in a wide range of tumors.

TACAs are considered to be good targets for carbohydrate-based vaccines because they are usually poorly expressed in normal cells. However, TACAs are mainly sole B-cell activating, which makes them unable to produce persistent high-affinity T cell-dependent antibodies. In addition, the natural isolation of TACAs for their implementation in natural vaccines is cumbersome due to their microscopic heterogeneity and autoantigenic properties. Therefore, conjugating synthetic TACAs with carrier proteins and using them as possible anti-cancer vaccines is being extensively studied and implemented.

Fig.1 Globo-H vaccines presently in pre-clinical and clinical trials. (Das, 2020)

Our services

CD BioGlyco provides customers with design, production and optimization services of carbohydrate-based anti-cancer vaccines. Our services include but are not limited to:

• Covalent conjugation of TACAs to carrier proteins such as BSA, DT, KLH, OVA, TT and MUC1 peptides to induce T cell-mediated immune response.
• Polyvalent vaccine development. We combine multiple carbohydrate antigens and carrier protein conjugates to develop unimolecular polyvalent vaccines, which can improve the efficacy of the vaccine.
• Development of fully synthetic carrier vaccines. We synthesize three components including B-cell epitopes (TACAs), TLR agonists (built-in adjuvant) and Th epitopes (MHC II presenting peptides) to ultimately synthesize fully synthetic vaccines to induce a strong, specific and long-lasting immune response.
• Modification of TACAs. We developed two types of modified TACA vaccines, including metabolic oligosaccharide engineering (MOE) vaccines and cross-reactivity antibodies induced by modified TACAs to enhance immunogenicity and prevent immune tolerance.

Applications

• Improvement of patient survival
• Discovery of cancer treatment
• Development of new therapies or combination therapies

Advantages of Us

• High yield of the final conjugation step
• Minimize immune suppression
• Persistent and strong immune response
• Effective and safe

With an advanced platform and high level of research capability, CD BioGlyco has made breakthroughs in assisting our clients to develop carbohydrate-based anticancer vaccines. Our extensive knowledge and rapidly developing technologies will help you accelerate scientific research. If you are interested in our services, please feel free to contact us.

Reference:

1. Das, R.; Mukhopadhyay, B. Carbohydrate-based anti-bacterial and anti-cancer vaccines. Carbohydrates in Drug Discovery and Development. 2020, 561-585.