We used two mouse models of melanoma termed B16.OVA and B16-F10 for testing the efficacy of OVA SIINFEKL-peptide-coated viruses and gp100-Trp2-peptide-coated viruses, respectively, and show that by coating the viral envelope with therapeutic peptides, the anti-tumor immunity and the number of tumor-specific CD8<sup>+</sup> T cells in the tumor microenvironment can be significantly enhanced.
We hypothesized that immunizing mice with xenogeneic DNA coding for the human melanosomal membrane glycoprotein gp100 would overcome immune ignorance or tolerance and result in tumor immunity.