TLR2 ligand-synthetic long peptide conjugates effectively stimulate tumor-draining lymph node T cells of cervical cancer patients

The potency of human papillomavirus type 16 (HPV16)-encoded synthetic long peptides (SLP), conjugated to an optimized Toll-like receptor 2 ligand (TLR2-L), was assessed in ex vivo activation of HPV16(+) cancer patient-derived T cells. Two highly immunogenic SLP sequences derived from the oncogenic E6 protein of HPV16 were selected and conjugated to a Pam3CSK4-based TLR2-L under GMP conditions. Both conjugates were able to mature human DCs in vitro and to activate human skin-derived antigen-presenting cells (APCs) upon intradermal injection in an ex vivo skin model, associated with induction of a favorable chemokine profile to attract and activate T cells. The conjugated SLPs were efficiently processed by APCs, since HPV16-specific CD4(+) and CD8(+) T-cell clones isolated from HPV16+ cervical tumors proliferated in response to both conjugates. The TLR2-L SLP conjugates significantly enhanced ex vivo T helper type 1 T-cell activation in cell suspensions obtained from tumor-draining lymph nodes (LN) resected during hysterectomy of HPV16(+) cervical cancer patients. These results show that TLR2-L SLP conjugates can activate circulating or LN-derived tumor-specific T cells, a promising outcome for studying these two conjugates in a phase I/II clinical safety and immunogenicity trial.