Immunological Examination of Echinococcus granulosus as a Candidate for Cancer Treatment and Vaccine Development: A Review Study

Echinococcus granulosus, is a cestode parasite that causes cystic echinococcosis. The vaccination procedure with tumor-associated antigens, coming from evolutionary distant organisms such as parasites, can be beneficial to override tolerance problems encountered with human tumor-associated antigens-based cancer therapeutic approaches. In this article, different databases of PubMed, Google Scholar, IranDoc and SID were examined from 2001 to 2021 and related articles were investigated. The review of related studies concerning human beings' treatment revealed the possibility of inhibition of cancer development via HCF antigens and mucin peptides extracted from this cestode.  Besides, HCF treatment in animal models mostly showed that anti-cancer immune responses were activated. Of note, an influential issue in the design process of an anti-cancer vaccine is triggering efficacious anti-tumor responses by using idyllic antigens for immunization against cancer. In this realm, many antigens have been studied for this purpose and showed different ranges of effectiveness. Based on the cross-reactivity among parasitic and tumor antigens, detection of parasitic antigens that are highly homologous with cancer antigens is an ideal objective for immunization against cancer cells. As the toxicity of HCF was reported in some studies, further research are required to shed light on finding an innovative anti-cancer vaccine derived from parasites. This review article is useful for health managers and researchers working on the anti-cancer vaccine development.