<em>In silico</em> analysis of chimeric subunit vaccine containing HER-2-MUC1 against breast cancer

Abstract

Breast cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women worldwide. Although tumorectomy, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and hormone replacement therapy have been used for the treatment of breast cancer, there is no effective therapy for patients with invasive and metastatic breast cancer. Targeting tumors using cancer vaccine therapeutics has several advantages including the induction of long-term immunity, prime boost strategies for additional treatments and reduced side effects compared to conventional chemotherapeutics. However, one problem in targeting tumor antigens directly is that it can lead to antigen loss or immune editing. We have designed a complex immunogen derived from the extracellular domain of human HER-2/<em>neu</em>- (480–620) and seven tandem repeats of MUC1 (VNTR) that represents a three-dimensional epitope. The construct was analyzed by bioinformatics softwares. Linear and discontinuous B-cell epitopes, MHC class I and II binding peptides of chimeric protein were predicted. Results suggest that the construct can be an appropriate vaccine candidate against breast cancer.