Targeting antitumor CD4 helper T cells with universal tumor-reactive helper peptides derived from telomerase for cancer vaccine

Abstract

Current cancer immunotherapies predominantly rely on CD8+ T cells to fight against tumors. However accumulative evidence showed that proinflammatory CD4+ helper T cells are critical determinants of effective antitumor immunity. The utilization of universal tumor-reactive helper peptides from telomerase represents a powerful approach to the fully use of CD4+ T cell-based immunotherapy. © 2013 Landes Bioscience.