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Trivedi V, Yang C, Klippel K, Yegorov O, von Roemeling C, Hoang-Minh L, Fenton G, Ogando-Rivas E, Castillo P, Moore G, Long-James K, Dyson K, Doonan B, Flores C, Mitchell DA. mRNA-based precision targeting of neoantigens and tumor-associated antigens in malignant brain tumors. Genome Med 2024; 16:17. [PMID: 38268001 PMCID: PMC10809449 DOI: 10.1186/s13073-024-01281-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/14/2023] [Accepted: 01/02/2024] [Indexed: 01/26/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Despite advancements in the successful use of immunotherapy in treating a variety of solid tumors, applications in treating brain tumors have lagged considerably. This is due, at least in part, to the lack of well-characterized antigens expressed within brain tumors that can mediate tumor rejection; the low mutational burden of these tumors that limits the abundance of targetable neoantigens; and the immunologically "cold" tumor microenvironment that hampers the generation of sustained and productive immunologic responses. The field of mRNA-based therapeutics has experienced a boon following the universal approval of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. mRNA-based immunotherapeutics have also garnered widespread interest for their potential to revolutionize cancer treatment. In this study, we developed a novel and scalable approach for the production of personalized mRNA-based therapeutics that target multiple tumor rejection antigens in a single therapy for the treatment of refractory brain tumors. METHODS Tumor-specific neoantigens and aberrantly overexpressed tumor-associated antigens were identified for glioblastoma and medulloblastoma tumors using our cancer immunogenomics pipeline called Open Reading Frame Antigen Network (O.R.A.N). Personalized tumor antigen-specific mRNA vaccine was developed for each individual tumor model using selective gene capture and enrichment strategy. The immunogenicity and efficacy of the personalized mRNA vaccines was evaluated in combination with anti-PD-1 immune checkpoint blockade therapy or adoptive cellular therapy with ex vivo expanded tumor antigen-specific lymphocytes in highly aggressive murine GBM models. RESULTS Our results demonstrate the effectiveness of the antigen-specific mRNA vaccines in eliciting robust anti-tumor immune responses in GBM hosts. Our findings substantiate an increase in tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes characterized by enhanced effector function, both intratumorally and systemically, after antigen-specific mRNA-directed immunotherapy, resulting in a favorable shift in the tumor microenvironment from immunologically cold to hot. Capacity to generate personalized mRNA vaccines targeting human GBM antigens was also demonstrated. CONCLUSIONS We have established a personalized and customizable mRNA-therapeutic approach that effectively targets a plurality of tumor antigens and demonstrated potent anti-tumor response in preclinical brain tumor models. This platform mRNA technology uniquely addresses the challenge of tumor heterogeneity and low antigen burden, two key deficiencies in targeting the classically immunotherapy-resistant CNS malignancies, and possibly other cold tumor types.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vrunda Trivedi
- University of Florida, 1333 Center Drive, BSB B1-118, Gainesville, FL, 32610, USA
| | - Changlin Yang
- University of Florida, 1333 Center Drive, BSB B1-118, Gainesville, FL, 32610, USA
| | - Kelena Klippel
- University of Florida, 1333 Center Drive, BSB B1-118, Gainesville, FL, 32610, USA
| | - Oleg Yegorov
- University of Florida, 1333 Center Drive, BSB B1-118, Gainesville, FL, 32610, USA
| | | | - Lan Hoang-Minh
- University of Florida, 1333 Center Drive, BSB B1-118, Gainesville, FL, 32610, USA
| | - Graeme Fenton
- University of Florida, 1333 Center Drive, BSB B1-118, Gainesville, FL, 32610, USA
| | | | - Paul Castillo
- University of Florida, 1333 Center Drive, BSB B1-118, Gainesville, FL, 32610, USA
| | - Ginger Moore
- University of Florida, 1333 Center Drive, BSB B1-118, Gainesville, FL, 32610, USA
| | - Kaytora Long-James
- University of Florida, 1333 Center Drive, BSB B1-118, Gainesville, FL, 32610, USA
| | - Kyle Dyson
- University of Florida, 1333 Center Drive, BSB B1-118, Gainesville, FL, 32610, USA
| | - Bently Doonan
- University of Florida, 1333 Center Drive, BSB B1-118, Gainesville, FL, 32610, USA
| | - Catherine Flores
- University of Florida, 1333 Center Drive, BSB B1-118, Gainesville, FL, 32610, USA
| | - Duane A Mitchell
- University of Florida, 1333 Center Drive, BSB B1-118, Gainesville, FL, 32610, USA.
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Flores C, Wildes T, Dean BD, Moore G, Drake J, Abraham R, Gil J, Yegorov O, Yang C, Dean J, Moneypenny C, Shin D, Pham C, Krauser J, King J, Grant G, Driscoll T, Kurtzberg J, McLendon R, Gururangan S, Mitchell D. Massive clonal expansion of medulloblastoma-specific T cells during adoptive cellular therapy. Sci Adv 2019; 5:eaav9879. [PMID: 31807694 PMCID: PMC6881165 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aav9879] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/07/2018] [Accepted: 09/17/2019] [Indexed: 05/04/2023]
Abstract
In both human and murine systems, we have developed an adoptive cellular therapy platform against medulloblastoma and glioblastoma that uses dendritic cells pulsed with a tumor RNA transcriptome to expand polyclonal tumor-reactive T cells against a plurality of antigens within heterogeneous brain tumors. We demonstrate that peripheral TCR Vβ repertoire analysis after adoptive cellular therapy reveals that effective response to adoptive cellular therapy is concordant with massive in vivo expansion and persistence of tumor-specific T cell clones within the peripheral blood. In preclinical models of medulloblastoma and glioblastoma, and in a patient with relapsed medulloblastoma receiving adoptive cellular therapy, an early and massive expansion of tumor-reactive lymphocytes, coupled with prolonged persistence in the peripheral blood, is observed during effective therapeutic response to immunotherapy treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- C. Flores
- University of Florida Brain Tumor Immunotherapy Program, Preston A. Wells, Jr. Center for Brain Tumor Therapy, Lillian S. Wells Department of Neurosurgery, McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - T. Wildes
- University of Florida Brain Tumor Immunotherapy Program, Preston A. Wells, Jr. Center for Brain Tumor Therapy, Lillian S. Wells Department of Neurosurgery, McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - B. DiVita Dean
- University of Florida Brain Tumor Immunotherapy Program, Preston A. Wells, Jr. Center for Brain Tumor Therapy, Lillian S. Wells Department of Neurosurgery, McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - G. Moore
- University of Florida Brain Tumor Immunotherapy Program, Preston A. Wells, Jr. Center for Brain Tumor Therapy, Lillian S. Wells Department of Neurosurgery, McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - J. Drake
- University of Florida Brain Tumor Immunotherapy Program, Preston A. Wells, Jr. Center for Brain Tumor Therapy, Lillian S. Wells Department of Neurosurgery, McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - R. Abraham
- University of Florida Brain Tumor Immunotherapy Program, Preston A. Wells, Jr. Center for Brain Tumor Therapy, Lillian S. Wells Department of Neurosurgery, McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - J. Gil
- University of Florida Brain Tumor Immunotherapy Program, Preston A. Wells, Jr. Center for Brain Tumor Therapy, Lillian S. Wells Department of Neurosurgery, McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - O. Yegorov
- University of Florida Brain Tumor Immunotherapy Program, Preston A. Wells, Jr. Center for Brain Tumor Therapy, Lillian S. Wells Department of Neurosurgery, McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - C. Yang
- University of Florida Brain Tumor Immunotherapy Program, Preston A. Wells, Jr. Center for Brain Tumor Therapy, Lillian S. Wells Department of Neurosurgery, McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - J. Dean
- University of Florida Brain Tumor Immunotherapy Program, Preston A. Wells, Jr. Center for Brain Tumor Therapy, Lillian S. Wells Department of Neurosurgery, McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - C. Moneypenny
- University of Florida Brain Tumor Immunotherapy Program, Preston A. Wells, Jr. Center for Brain Tumor Therapy, Lillian S. Wells Department of Neurosurgery, McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - D. Shin
- University of Florida Brain Tumor Immunotherapy Program, Preston A. Wells, Jr. Center for Brain Tumor Therapy, Lillian S. Wells Department of Neurosurgery, McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
- U.S. Army, 1600 Spearhead Division Ave., Fort Knox, KY, USA
| | - C. Pham
- University of Florida Brain Tumor Immunotherapy Program, Preston A. Wells, Jr. Center for Brain Tumor Therapy, Lillian S. Wells Department of Neurosurgery, McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - J. Krauser
- University of Florida Brain Tumor Immunotherapy Program, Preston A. Wells, Jr. Center for Brain Tumor Therapy, Lillian S. Wells Department of Neurosurgery, McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - J. King
- University of Florida Brain Tumor Immunotherapy Program, Preston A. Wells, Jr. Center for Brain Tumor Therapy, Lillian S. Wells Department of Neurosurgery, McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - G. Grant
- Department of Neurosurgery, Stanford University Medical Center, Palo Alto, CA, USA
| | - T. Driscoll
- Department of Pediatrics, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA
| | - J. Kurtzberg
- Department of Pediatrics, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA
| | - R. McLendon
- Department of Pathology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA
| | - S. Gururangan
- University of Florida Brain Tumor Immunotherapy Program, Preston A. Wells, Jr. Center for Brain Tumor Therapy, Lillian S. Wells Department of Neurosurgery, McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - D. Mitchell
- University of Florida Brain Tumor Immunotherapy Program, Preston A. Wells, Jr. Center for Brain Tumor Therapy, Lillian S. Wells Department of Neurosurgery, McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
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