MODIFIED MELK PEPTIDES AND VACCINES CONTAINING THE SAME

Isolated peptides composed of the amino acid sequence of the modified MELK epitope peptide or immunologically active fragments thereof that bind to HLA antigens and have higher cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) inducibility than that of the wild type MELK epitope peptide and thus are suitable for use in the context of cancer immunotherapy or endometriosis immunotherapy, more particularly cancer or endometriosis vaccines are described herein. The present invention further provides peptides that include one, two, or several amino acid insertions, substitutions or additions to the aforementioned peptides or fragments, but yet retain the requisite cytotoxic T cell inducibility. Further provided are nucleic acids encoding any of these aforementioned peptides as well as pharmaceutical substances and compositions including any of the aforementioned peptides or nucleic acids. The peptides, nucleic acids, pharmaceutical substances and compositions of this invention find particular utility in the treatment of cancers, tumors, and endometriosis.