Although many HERV sequences have acquired inactivating mutations during human evolution, some HERVs retain protein-coding functions, which partly play important roles in human physiology and pathology. For example, correlation between HERVs and human cancer has been described for melanoma, breast cancer, germ cell tumours, renal cancer and ovarian cancer where HERV Envelope (Env) proteins are overexpressed compared to healthy tissues.

The TREATCANCERV partners therefore aim at developing therapeutic vaccines as well as therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) targeting these HERV Env proteins.

The Wagner lab contributes to this project by designing antigens based on the Env protein for different HERV strains, which will then be used for the production of hybridoma cell lines expressing monoclonal antibodies targeting these antigens. The project partner Sirion-Biotech will produce adenoviral vectors carrying the same antigens while our project partners from the University of Copenhagen and the Danish company InProTher will develop the therapeutic vaccination approach based on a Virus-Like-Vaccine (VLV).