Identification of Tumor Antigens and Immune Landscape in Glioblastoma for mRNA Vaccine Development

Towards Effective Treatment of Glioblastoma: The Role of Combination Therapies and the Potential of Phytotherapy and Micotherapy

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is one of the most aggressive and difficult-to-treat brain tumors, with a poor prognosis due to its high resistance to conventional therapies. Current treatment options, including surgical resection, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, have limited effectiveness in improving long-term survival. Despite the emergence of new therapies, monotherapy approaches have not shown significant improvements, highlighting the need for innovative therapeutic strategies. Combination therapies appear to be the most promising solution, as they target multiple molecular pathways involved in GBM progression. One area of growing interest is the incorporation of phytotherapy and micotherapy as complementary treatments, which offer potential benefits due to their anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulatory properties. This review examines the current challenges in GBM treatment, discusses the potential of combination therapies, and highlights the promising role of phytotherapy and micotherapy as integrative therapeutic options for GBM management.

Personalized mRNA vaccines in glioblastoma therapy: from rational design to clinical trials

Glioblastomas (GBMs) are the most common and aggressive malignant brain tumors, presenting significant challenges for treatment due to their invasive nature and localization in critical brain regions. Standard treatment includes surgical resection followed by radiation and adjuvant chemotherapy with temozolomide (TMZ). Recent advances in immunotherapy, including the use of mRNA vaccines, offer promising alternatives. This review focuses on the emerging use of mRNA vaccines for GBM treatment. We summarize recent advancements, evaluate current obstacles, and discuss notable successes in this field. Our analysis highlights that while mRNA vaccines have shown potential, their use in GBM treatment is still experimental. Ongoing research and clinical trials are essential to fully understand their therapeutic potential. Future developments in mRNA vaccine technology and insights into GBM-specific immune responses may lead to more targeted and effective treatments. Despite the promise, further research is crucial to validate and optimize the effectiveness of mRNA vaccines in combating GBM.

Effectiveness and Safety of mRNA Vaccines in the Therapy of Glioblastoma

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common and most malignant primary brain tumor, presenting significant treatment challenges due to its heterogeneity, invasiveness, and resistance to conventional therapies. Despite aggressive treatment protocols, the prognosis remains poor, with a median survival time of approximately 15 months. Recent advancements in mRNA vaccine technology, particularly the development of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), have revitalized interest in mRNA-based therapies. These vaccines offer unique advantages, including rapid production, personalization based on tumor-specific mutations, and a strong induction of both humoral and cellular immune responses. mRNA vaccines have demonstrated potential in preclinical models, showing significant tumor regression and improved survival rates. Early-phase clinical trials have indicated that mRNA vaccines are safe and can induce robust immune responses in GBM patients. Combining mRNA vaccines with other immunotherapeutic approaches, such as checkpoint inhibitors, has shown synergistic effects, further enhancing their efficacy. However, challenges such as optimizing delivery systems and overcoming the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment remain. Future research should focus on addressing these challenges and exploring combination therapies to maximize therapeutic benefits. Large-scale, randomized clinical trials are essential to validate the efficacy and safety of mRNA vaccines in GBM therapy. The potential to reshape the tumor microenvironment and establish long-term immunological memory underscores the transformative potential of mRNA vaccines in cancer immunotherapy.

Pan-cancer identified ARPC1B as a promising target for tumor immunotherapy and prognostic biomarker, particularly in READ

ARPC1B encodes the protein known as actin-related protein 2/3 complex subunit 1 B (ARPC1B), which controls actin polymerization in the human body. Although ARPC1B has been linked to several human malignancies, its function in these cancers remains unclear. TCGA, GTEx, CCLE, Xena, CellMiner, TISIDB, and molecular signature databases were used to analyze ARPC1B expression in cancers. Visualization of data was primarily achieved using R language, version 4.0. Nineteen tumors exhibited high levels of ARPC1B expression, which were associated with different tumor stages and significantly affected the prognosis of various cancers. The level of ARPC1B expression substantially connected the narrative of ARPC1B expression with several TMB cancers and showed significant changes in MSI. Additionally, tolerance to numerous anticancer medications has been linked to high ARPC1B gene expression. Using Gene Set Variation Analysis/Gene Set Enrichment Analysisanalysis and concentrating on Rectum adenocarcinoma (READ), we thoroughly examined the molecular processes of the ARPC1B gene in pan-cancer. Using WGCNA, we examined the co-expression network of READ and ARPC1B. Meanwhile, ten specimens were selected for immunohistochemical examination, which showed high expression of ARPC1B in READ. Human pan-cancer samples show higher ARPC1B expression than healthy tissues. In many malignancies, particularly READ, ARPC1B overexpression is associated with immune cell infiltration and a poor prognosis. These results imply that the molecular biomarker ARPC1B may be used to assess the prognosis and immune infiltration of patients with READ.

Advancing personalized medicine in brain cancer: exploring the role of mRNA vaccines

Advancing personalized medicine in brain cancer relies on innovative strategies, with mRNA vaccines emerging as a promising avenue. While the initial use of mRNA vaccines was in oncology, their stunning success in COVID-19 resulted in widespread attention, both positive and negative. Regardless of politically biased opinions, which relate more to the antigenic source than form of delivery, we feel it is important to objectively review this modality as relates to brain cancer. This class of vaccines trigger robust immune responses through MHC-I and MHC-II pathways, in both prophylactic and therapeutic settings. The mRNA platform offers advantages of rapid development, high potency, cost-effectiveness, and safety. This review provides an overview of mRNA vaccine delivery technologies, tumor antigen identification, combination therapies, and recent therapeutic outcomes, with a particular focus on brain cancer. Combinatorial approaches are vital to maximizing mRNA cancer vaccine efficacy, with ongoing clinical trials exploring combinations with adjuvants and checkpoint inhibitors and even adoptive cell therapy. Efficient delivery, neoantigen identification, preclinical studies, and clinical trial results are highlighted, underscoring mRNA vaccines' potential in advancing personalized medicine for brain cancer. Synergistic combinatorial therapies play a crucial role, emphasizing the need for continued research and collaboration in this area.

Dendritic cell vaccine trials in gliomas: Untangling the lines

Glioblastoma is a deadly brain tumor without any significantly successful treatments to date. Tumor antigen-targeted immunotherapy platforms including peptide and dendritic cell (DC) vaccines, have extended survival in hematologic malignancies. The relatively "cold" tumor immune microenvironment and heterogenous nature of glioblastoma have proven to be major limitations to translational application and efficacy of DC vaccines. Furthermore, many DC vaccine trials in glioblastoma are difficult to interpret due to a lack of contemporaneous controls, absence of any control comparison, or inconsistent patient populations. Here we review glioblastoma immunobiology aspects that are relevant to DC vaccines, review the clinical experience with DC vaccines targeting glioblastoma, discuss challenges in clinical trial design, and summarize conclusions and directions for future research for the development of effective DC vaccines for patients.

RNA modification in mRNA cancer vaccines

RNA modification is manifested as chemically altered nucleotides, widely exists in diverse natural RNAs, and is closely related to RNA structure and function. Currently, mRNA-based vaccines have received great attention and rapid development as novel and mighty fighters against various diseases including cancer. The achievement of RNA vaccines in clinical application is largely attributed to some methodological innovations including the incorporation of modified nucleotides into the synthetic RNA. The selection of optimal RNA modifications aimed at reducing the instability and immunogenicity of RNA molecules is a very critical task to improve the efficacy and safety of mRNA vaccines. This review summarizes the functions of RNA modifications and their application in mRNA vaccines, highlights recent advances of mRNA vaccines in cancer immunotherapy, and provides perspectives for future development of mRNA vaccines in the context of personalized tumor therapy.

The role of immune subtyping in glioma mRNA vaccine development

Studies on the development of mRNA vaccines for central nervous system tumors have used gene expression profiles, clinical data and RNA sequencing from sources such as The Cancer Genome Atlas and Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas to identify effective antigens. These studies revealed several immune subtypes of glioma, each one linked to unique prognoses and genetic/immune-modulatory changes. Potential antigens include ARPC1B, BRCA2, COL6A1, ITGB3, IDH1, LILRB2, TP53 and KDR, among others. Patients with immune-active and immune-suppressive phenotypes were found to respond better to mRNA vaccines. While these findings indicate the potential of mRNA vaccines in cancer therapy, further research is required to optimize administration and adjuvant selection, and precisely identify target antigens.

Current Status and Challenges of Vaccination Therapy for Glioblastoma

Glioblastoma (GBM), also known as grade IV astrocytoma, is the most common and deadly type of central nervous system malignancy in adults. Despite significant breakthroughs in current GBM treatments such as surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy, the prognosis for late-stage glioblastoma remains bleak due to tumor recurrence following surgical resection. The poor prognosis highlights the evident and pressing need for more efficient and targeted treatment. Vaccination has successfully treated patients with advanced colorectal and lung cancer. Therefore, the potential value of using tumor vaccines in treating glioblastoma is increasingly discussed as a monotherapy or in combination with other cellular immunotherapies. Cancer vaccination includes both passive administration of monoclonal antibodies and active vaccination procedures to activate, boost, or bias antitumor immunity against cancer cells. This article focuses on active immunotherapy with peptide, genetic (DNA, mRNA), and cell-based vaccines in treating GBM and reviews the various treatment approaches currently being tested. Although the ease of synthesis, relative safety, and ability to elicit tumor-specific immune responses have made these vaccines an invaluable tool for cancer treatment, more extensive cohort studies and better guidelines are needed to improve the efficacy of these vaccines in anti-GBM therapy.

Identification of tumor antigens and immune subtypes in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma for mRNA vaccine development

The mRNA vaccines have been considered effective for combating cancer. However, the core components of the mRNA vaccines against head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) and the effects remain unclear. Our study aims to identify effective antigens in HNSCC to develop mRNA vaccines for corresponding potential patients. Here, we analyzed alternative splicing and mutation of genes in TCGA-HNSCC samples and identified seven potential tumor antigens, including SREBF1, LUC7L3, LAMA5, PCGF3, HNRNPH1, KLC4, and OFD1, which were associated with nonsense-mediated mRNA decay factor expression, overall survival prognosis and the infiltration of antigen-presenting cells. Furthermore, to select suitable patients for vaccination, immune subtypes related to HNSCC were identified by consensus clustering analysis, and visualization of the HNSCC immune landscape was performed by graph-learning-based dimensionality reduction. To address the heterogeneity of the population that is suitable for vaccination, plot cell trajectory and WGCNA were also utilized. HNSCC patients were classified into three prognostically relevant immune subtypes (Cluster 1, Cluster 2, and Cluster 3) possessing different molecular and cellular characteristics, immune modulators, and mutation statuses. Cluster 1 had an immune-activated phenotype and was associated with better survival, while Cluster 2 and Cluster 3 were immunologically cold and linked to increased tumor mutation burden. Therefore, HNSCC patients with immune subtypes Cluster 2 and Cluster 3 are potentially suitable for mRNA vaccination. Moreover, the prognostic module hub genes screened seven genes, including IGKC, IGHV3-15, IGLV1-40, IGLV1-51, IGLC3, IGLC2, and CD79A, which could be potential biomarkers to predict prognosis and identify suitable patients for mRNA vaccines. Our findings provide a theoretical basis for further research and the development of anti-HNSCC mRNA vaccines and the selection of suitable patients for vaccination.

Identification of tumor antigens and immune subtypes of glioma for mRNA vaccine development

Recent evidence suggested that the mRNA vaccine has been effective for many tumors, but its progress in gliomas was slow. In this study, we screened potential tumor antigens and suitable populations for mRNA vaccine to develop mRNA vaccine for glioma. We integrated the normalized RNA sequencing expression data and somatic mutation data from TCGA-GBM, TCGA-LGG, and CGGA datasets. Putative antigens in glioma were identified by selecting highly mutated genes with intimate correlation with clinical survival and immune infiltration. An unsupervised partition around medoids algorithm was utilized to stably cluster the patients into five different immune subtypes. Among them, IS1/2 was cold tumor with low tumor mutation burden (TMB), immunogenic cell death (ICDs), and immune checkpoints (ICPs), and IS4/5 was hot tumor with high TMB, ICDs, and ICPs. Monocle3 package was used to evaluate the immune status similarity and evolution in glioma, which identified cluster IS2A/2B within IS2 subtype to be more suitable vaccination receivers. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis identified five hub immune genes as the biomarkers of patients' immune status in glioma. In conclusion, NAT1, FRRS1, GTF2H2C, BRCA2, GRAP, NR5A2, ABCB4, ZNF90, ERCC6L, and ZNF813 are potential antigens suitable for glioma mRNA vaccine. IS1/2A/2B are suitable for mRNA vaccination.

Identification of Tumor Antigens and Immune Subtypes in Lung Adenocarcinoma for mRNA Vaccine Development

Cancer vaccines are emerging as a viable strategy for cancer treatment. In the current study, we screened for genes associated with the prognosis of patients with lung adenocarcinoma and positively correlated with antigen-presenting cell infiltration and identified KLRG1 and CBFA2T3 as potential tumor antigens for mRNA vaccines in lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD). Further analyses of immune subtypes revealed that patients with early-stage LUAD, high immune cell infiltration, high immune checkpoint expression, and low tumor mutation burden might benefit from mRNA vaccination. Moreover, we identified four biomarkers that can be used to assess mRNA vaccination suitability. We also identified potentially sensitive anti-cancer drugs for populations not suitable for vaccination by means of anti-cancer drug susceptibility prediction. Overall, we provided a new perspective for mRNA vaccine treatment strategies for LUAD and emphasized the importance of precise and personalized treatments.

Molecular Pathogenesis of Glioblastoma in Adults and Future Perspectives: A Systematic Review

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common and malignant tumour of the central nervous system. Recent appreciation of the heterogeneity amongst these tumours not only changed the WHO classification approach, but also created the need for developing novel and personalised therapies. This systematic review aims to highlight recent advancements in understanding the molecular pathogenesis of the GBM and discuss related novel treatment targets. A systematic search of the literature in the PubMed library was performed following the PRISMA guidelines for molecular pathogenesis and therapeutic advances. Original and meta-analyses studies from the last ten years were reviewed using pre-determined search terms. The results included articles relevant to GBM development focusing on the aberrancy in cell signaling pathways and intracellular events. Theragnostic targets and vaccination to treat GBM were also explored. The molecular pathophysiology of GBM is complex. Our systematic review suggests targeting therapy at the stemness, p53 mediated pathways and immune modulation. Exciting novel immune therapy involving dendritic cell vaccines, B-cell vaccines and viral vectors may be the future of treating GBM.