- Therapeutics
- Andy Burke
Adoptive cell therapy (ACT) is a breakthrough form of cancer immunotherapy that utilizes autologous, antitumor T cells to attack tumors through recognition of tumor-specific mutations, or neoantigens. A major hurdle in the development of ACT is the exhausted phenotype exhibited by many neoantigen-specific T cells, which limits their efficacy and prevents a sustained immune response.
Researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) have developed a combination immunotherapy to rescue the function of exhausted, neoantigen-specific T cells and, thus, enhance ACT. The method involves concurrent administration of neoantigen-specific T cells alongside a vaccine targeting the same neoantigens. The antitumor effect of this combination immunotherapy is superior to that mediated by the vaccine or by ACT alone, as measured in vivo by overall survival and tumor regression. Patient T cells genetically engineered with a neoantigen-specific T-cell receptor (TCR) can also be synergistically enhanced when used alongside a vaccine targeting the same antigen in this combination immunotherapy. This combined immunotherapy approach has broad therapeutic potential in a wide range of metastatic cancers, particularly those that are not responsive to traditional treatment methods.
The NCI seeks parties interested in research co-development and/or licensing of this combination immunotherapy approach of neoantigen-specific T cells administered alongside a neoantigen-targeting vaccine to enhance ACT and treat cancer.
- A variety of human cancers potentially amenable to the synergistic combination therapy of adoptive cell therapy (ACT) and tumor vaccine to treat
- Cell therapies for which the ACT component can employ isolated exhausted, neoantigen-specific T cells or T cells transduced with a neoantigen-specific TCR
- Synergistic, instead of additive, effect observed with this combination therapy based on available in vivo data
- Increased efficacy of exhausted, neoantigen-specific T cells
- Reduced toxicity compared to non-tumor specific immunotherapies
- T cells and vaccine can target either patient-specific somatic mutations or common driver mutations
- Broad clinical applications, including solid tumors (which traditional ACT methods have struggled to effectively treat)
Sri Krishna PhD (NCI), Zhiya Yu Ph.D (NCI), Ken-ichi Hanada MD, PhD (NCI), Steven Rosenberg PhD (NCI)
- Pre-clinical (in vivo)
- U.S. Provisional: U.S. Provisional Patent Application Number 63/295,762, Filed 31 Dec 2021
- E-059-2013 - Improved Personalized Cancer Immunotherapy
- E-085-2013
- E-229-2014 - T-Cell Therapy Against Patient-Specific Cancer Mutations
- E-233-2014 - T-Cell Therapy Against Patient-Specific Cancer Mutations
- E-280-2016 - A Dendritic Cell Vaccine to Immunize Cancer Patients Against Mutated Neoantigens Expressed by the Autologous Cancer
- E-067-2017 - A Rapid Method of Isolating Neoantigen-specific T Cell Receptor Sequences
- E-061-2020 - Extremely Rapid Method to Isolate Neoantigen Reactive T Cell Receptors (TCRs)
- E-102-2020 - Method of Neoantigen-Reactive T Cell Receptor (TCR) Isolation from Peripheral Blood of Cancer Patients
- Cancer/Neoplasm