Alternative Vaccine Strategies for Cervical Cancer

Abstract

Cervical cancer, caused by Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is the third largest cause of female mortality over the world with an estimated 500,000 cases and 270,000 deaths annually [1]. Nevertheless there are only two vaccines are available in the world market to protect cervical cancer. Gardasil® (Merck, USA)) and Cervarix® (GlaxoSmithKline, UK) are both Virus Like Particle (VLP) based vaccines and administered intravenously in liquid form along with other adjuvants such as aluminum hydroxyphosphatesulfate, sodium chloride, polysorbate 80 etc [2]. When launched onto the market in 2007 and 2010, the vaccines Cervarix and Gardsil were considered as highly effective and complete safe vaccines. However, the cost of the vaccine itself, the expensive storage system, need for an expert to administer the vaccines tremendously inhibits the mass use of the vaccines globally. Also the antigens in the vaccines are Virus-Like Particles (VLPs), which are grown in the insect (Gardasil) or yeast cells (Cervarix) from the DNA obtained from Human Papillomavirus [2,3]. Growing VLPs is a complicated process and requires special research facilities where virus can be handled with highest safety. Unfortunately most of the resource poor countries where cervical cancer mostly prevails are unable to afford the huge burden of cutting edge technology and conduct sophisticated research. Therefore finding an alternative option to VLP based vaccine is becoming an important research challenge. More importantly, recent controversy over the side effects of both vaccines also calls for a demand to develop an alternative vaccine formulation which will be able to address all the above mentioned issues.