Fig 2.

Cellular proliferative responses to six melanoma helper peptides (6MHP) in peripheral-blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and the sentinel immunized node (SIN). (A) Proliferation data are shown for one patient VMM699 at 5 days after stimulation with the 6MHP pool, individual peptides, or an irrelevant tetanus helper peptide. Calculated stimulation index (SI) data are shown; SIs above the red line (SI > 4) are considered positive. The patient is HLA-DR4 and HLA-DR12 positive; described HLA-DR restrictions for peptides with responses (TSY, WNR, FLL, and AQN) are DR11, DR4 and DR1, DR15, and DR4, respectively. W, weeks; T, vaccine treatment; SIN W = 3, sentinel immunized node harvested at week 3. (B) SIs reported for the pool of 6MHP correlated with the sum of maximum SIs for each peptide at all time points evaluated in the PBMC or SIN. (C) Time course for proliferation assay SI data over time for all evaluated patients, with box plots (boxes = 25th to 75th percentiles; vertical lines = minimum to maximum). Numbers at the top of each bar are the number of assessable patients at the time shown. W, weeks from study initiation; M, months from study initiation; T, treatment/vaccine number; SIN, day of SIN biopsy; NA, not available. These are PBMC data only. Blood was not drawn at weeks 2, 4, and 6 and was not evaluated at month 12. (D) Box plot of SIs for immune responders, through week 12, in the PBMC and SIN for each study group (groups A, B, and C = 200, 400, and 800 μg dose, respectively).