Vaccines have long been used for the prevention of infectious diseases, such as viral or microbial infections. The cell-mediated arm of the immune system is extensively involved in providing the host with the ability to defend, recover from infections and to prevent further infections by the same antigen.
Cell-mediated immune mechanisms are also thought to be useful against other diseases such as cancer and autoimmune diseases. Several tumor-related antigens have been identified and used to prepare vaccines intended to treat cancer (e.g., lineage-specific antigens such as MART-1, tyrosinase, gp100, cancer-testis antigens, such as Her2/Neu, CEA, or antigens overexpressed on rapidly proliferating cells, such as cyclins, survivin, etc.). In addition to the defined antigens and their epitopes, whole tumor cells are also used as the source of cancer-relevant antigens.
There is a need for more efficient therapeutic vaccines and improved methods of treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases.