Self-Adjuvanting Multicomponent Cancer Vaccine Candidates Combining Per-Glycosylated MUC1 Glycopeptides and the Toll-like Receptor 2 Agonist Pam3CysSer

The aberrant glycosylation of cell surface mucin glycoproteins such as MUC1 and the overexpression of highly truncated, tumor-associated carbohydrate antigens (TACAs) are strongly correlated with tumor metastasis and poor prognosis.[¹] Such TACAs, including the well-studied TN and T antigens and their sialylated derivatives, are important targets for the development of antigen-specific carbohydrate vaccines.[²] However, these structures are self antigens that generally elicit T-cell independent immune responses which are tolerated by the immune system and lead to poor immunogenicity.