Adjuvant oncolytic virotherapy for personalized anti-cancer vaccination

Nat Commun. 2021 May 11;12(1):2626. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-22929-z.

Abstract

By conferring systemic protection and durable benefits, cancer immunotherapies are emerging as long-term solutions for cancer treatment. One such approach that is currently undergoing clinical testing is a therapeutic anti-cancer vaccine that uses two different viruses expressing the same tumor antigen to prime and boost anti-tumor immunity. By providing the additional advantage of directly killing cancer cells, oncolytic viruses (OVs) constitute ideal platforms for such treatment strategy. However, given that the targeted tumor antigen is encoded into the viral genomes, its production requires robust infection and therefore, the vaccination efficiency partially depends on the unpredictable and highly variable intrinsic sensitivity of each tumor to OV infection. In this study, we demonstrate that anti-cancer vaccination using OVs (Adenovirus (Ad), Maraba virus (MRB), Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) and Vaccinia virus (VV)) co-administered with antigenic peptides is as efficient as antigen-engineered OVs and does not depend on viral replication. Our strategy is particularly attractive for personalized anti-cancer vaccines targeting patient-specific mutations. We suggest that the use of OVs as adjuvant platforms for therapeutic anti-cancer vaccination warrants testing for cancer treatment.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adjuvants, Immunologic / administration & dosage
  • Animals
  • Antigens, Neoplasm / administration & dosage*
  • Antigens, Neoplasm / genetics
  • Antigens, Neoplasm / immunology
  • Cancer Vaccines / administration & dosage*
  • Cancer Vaccines / genetics
  • Cancer Vaccines / immunology
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Clinical Trials, Phase I as Topic
  • Clinical Trials, Phase II as Topic
  • Disease Models, Animal
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Mice
  • Neoplasms / immunology
  • Neoplasms / therapy*
  • Oncolytic Virotherapy / methods*
  • Oncolytic Viruses / genetics
  • Oncolytic Viruses / immunology*
  • Poly I-C / administration & dosage
  • Poly I-C / immunology
  • Vaccines, Subunit / administration & dosage
  • Vaccines, Subunit / genetics
  • Vaccines, Subunit / immunology
  • Vaccinia virus
  • Vesicular stomatitis Indiana virus
  • Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays

Substances

  • Adjuvants, Immunologic
  • Antigens, Neoplasm
  • Cancer Vaccines
  • Vaccines, Subunit
  • Poly I-C

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