Therapeutic HPV16 E7 vaccination with CD137 agonism induces tumor regression and durable immunity in mice
Abstract
Prophylactic human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines prevent new infections but do not treat established HPV-associated lesions, highlighting the need for therapeutic strategies targeting viral tumor antigens. We developed a recombinant overlapping peptide-based HPV16 E7 vaccine (ROP-E7) and evaluated its immunogenicity and antitumor activity, alone or combined with CD137 (4-1BB) agonism, in C57BL/6 mice. In tumor-free mice, ROP-E7 induced greater helper and cytotoxic T cell responses than wild-type E7. In tumor-bearing mice, ROP-E7 reduced tumor burden and improved survival, while combination treatment induced complete tumor regression and tumor-free survival beyond 100 days. These effects were associated with increased intratumoral cytotoxic T cells and reduced regulatory and exhausted T cell populations. These findings provide preclinical support for combining therapeutic HPV16 E7 vaccination with T cell co-stimulation in HPV-associated cancers.
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BibTeX
@article{ou2026therapeutic,
title = {{Therapeutic HPV16 E7 vaccination with CD137 agonism induces tumor regression and durable immunity in mice}},
author = {Yuqian Ou and Wenshu Lu and Hanjun Zhao and Constantinos Demetrious and Qing Zhang and Qiujie Zheng and Yanyan Jiang and Peter Kok-Ting Wan and Eric O’Neill and Lina Zhang and Shisong Jiang},
journal = {iScience},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1016/j.isci.2026.118018},
url = {https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(26)03401-2},
note = {CC BY-NC 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Therapeutic HPV16 E7 vaccination with CD137 agonism induces tumor regression and durable immunity in mice
AU - Yuqian Ou
AU - Wenshu Lu
AU - Hanjun Zhao
AU - Constantinos Demetrious
AU - Qing Zhang
AU - Qiujie Zheng
AU - Yanyan Jiang
AU - Peter Kok-Ting Wan
AU - Eric O’Neill
AU - Lina Zhang
AU - Shisong Jiang
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/26
JO - iScience
DO - 10.1016/j.isci.2026.118018
UR - https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(26)03401-2
AB - Prophylactic human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines prevent new infections but do not treat established HPV-associated lesions, highlighting the need for therapeutic strategies targeting viral tumor antigens. We developed a recombinant overlapping peptide-based HPV16 E7 vaccine (ROP-E7) and evaluated its immunogenicity and antitumor activity, alone or combined with CD137 (4-1BB) agonism, in C57BL/6 mice. In tumor-free mice, ROP-E7 induced greater helper and cytotoxic T cell responses than wild-type E7. In tumor-bearing mice, ROP-E7 reduced tumor burden and improved survival, while combination treatment induced complete tumor regression and tumor-free survival beyond 100 days. These effects were associated with increased intratumoral cytotoxic T cells and reduced regulatory and exhausted T cell populations. These findings provide preclinical support for combining therapeutic HPV16 E7 vaccination with T cell co-stimulation in HPV-associated cancers.
SN - 2589-0042
ER -