Evaluation of the immunostimulant effects of the vaccine formulation developed from AGS cells for gastric cancer

Abstract

Cancer is a serious public health problem that occurs as a result of uncontrolled proliferation of normal cells and is the second leading cause of death. Gastric cancer, which is the fifth most common malignancy diagnosed worldwide after lung, breast, colorectal and prostate cancers among cancer types, is one of the deadliest cancer types with a five-year survival rate of 20%. Although methods such as surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy and targeted drug therapy are frequently used in its treatment, none of them gives effective results. Therefore, there is a need to develop treatment approaches. Immunotherapy is recognized as an innovative approach for cancers such as lung, stomach and breast cancer. Creating immunity in individuals before getting the disease will prevent the onset of the disease, as well as ensure maximum response from the treatment. Studies in the literature showing that vaccination activates the immune system against cancer reveal promising results in cancer vaccines.In this study, the immunostimulatory effects of different vaccine formulations developed for gastric cancer were investigated in vitro in J774 murine macrophage, THP-1 human macrophage and L929 fibroblast cells and their cytotoxicity was determined. Antigens obtained from AGS gastric cancer cell line by autoclave method were formulated with hydroxyapatite and calcium phosphate adjuvants. According to the results of the study, it was determined that the vaccine formulations developed did not cause toxic effects at any concentration, the immunostimulatory activity increased with increasing protein concentration, and the highest value was obtained at 40 µg/ml concentration. It was determined that cell viability rates were more than 80% at maximum protein concentration in all three cell lines. We can say that the obtained results will help the development of vaccine formulations for gastric cancer and provide data for researchers working on cancer immunotherapy.