Design and development of phage based vaccine for preventing prostate cancer

Removal of prostate and radiotherapy are used routinely for treatment of prostate cancer; however in advanced stages of the disease these treatments are ineffective. Researchers are exploring strategies for preventing this malignancy. This study aims to design and develop a phage based vaccine for preventing prostate cancer. After conducting bioinformatic research on designing and evaluating the effect of the vaccine، the vaccine was produced and the immune response tested in rabbit. Phage display technology was used to express the prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA) on the surface of pVIII of M13 bacteriophage. Recombinant PSMA gene was cloned in the pAK8-GVO77 vector which contained the pVIII sequence. Recombinant construct was transferred into TG1 (an E. coli strain) bacterium and the transformed bacteria were infected with M13k07 helper phage. Recombination phages were evaluated by monoclonal antibodies via ELISA. To assess the immunogenicity، recombinant phages were injected subcutaneously and intramuscularly into white rabbit. The immune response against PSMA was assessed by ELISA method. The developed vaccine was able to raise an immune response in the laboratory animal. This research showed that it is possible to design and develop a phage based vaccine that raises the humoral immunity; assessment of the cancer inhibitory effect of the vaccine requires more experimental studies.