Vaccine and Immunotherapy Center, Microenvironment and Metastasis Program, The Wistar Institute, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462, USA.
Mol Ther. 2019 Feb 6;27(2):314-325. doi: 10.1016/j.ymthe.2018.11.014. Epub 2018 Dec 13.
Ovarian cancer presents in 80% of patients as a metastatic disease, which confers it with dismal prognosis despite surgery and chemotherapy. However, it is an immunogenic disease, and the presence of intratumoral T cells is a major prognostic factor for survival. We used a synthetic consensus (SynCon) approach to generate a novel DNA vaccine that breaks immune tolerance to follicle-stimulating hormone receptor (FSHR), present in 50% of ovarian cancers but confined to the ovary in healthy tissues. SynCon FSHR DNA vaccine generated robust CD8 and CD4 cellular immune responses and FSHR-redirected antibodies. The SynCon FSHR DNA vaccine delayed the progression of a highly aggressive ovarian cancer model with peritoneal carcinomatosis in immunocompetent mice, and it increased the infiltration of anti-tumor CD8 T cells in the tumor microenvironment. Anti-tumor activity of this FSHR vaccine was confirmed in a syngeneic murine FSHR-expressing prostate cancer model. Furthermore, adoptive transfer of vaccine-primed CD8 T cells after ex vivo expansion delayed ovarian cancer progression. In conclusion, the SynCon FSHR vaccine was able to break immune tolerance and elicit an effective anti-tumor response associated with an increase in tumor-infiltrating T cells. FSHR DNA vaccination could help current ovarian cancer therapy after first-line treatment of FSHR tumors to prevent tumor recurrence.
卵巢癌 80%的患者表现为转移性疾病,尽管进行了手术和化疗,但其预后仍然不佳。然而,它是一种免疫原性疾病,肿瘤内 T 细胞的存在是生存的主要预后因素。我们使用合成共识(SynCon)方法来生成一种新型 DNA 疫苗,该疫苗可以打破对滤泡刺激激素受体(FSHR)的免疫耐受,FSHR 存在于 50%的卵巢癌中,但局限于健康组织中的卵巢。SynCon FSHR DNA 疫苗可产生强大的 CD8 和 CD4 细胞免疫应答和 FSHR 重定向抗体。SynCon FSHR DNA 疫苗可延迟具有腹膜转移的高侵袭性卵巢癌模型在免疫功能正常的小鼠中的进展,并增加肿瘤微环境中抗肿瘤 CD8 T 细胞的浸润。在表达 FSHR 的同种小鼠前列腺癌模型中证实了这种 FSHR 疫苗的抗肿瘤活性。此外,在体外扩增后过继转移疫苗诱导的 CD8 T 细胞可延迟卵巢癌的进展。总之,SynCon FSHR 疫苗能够打破免疫耐受并引发与肿瘤浸润 T 细胞增加相关的有效抗肿瘤反应。FSHR DNA 疫苗接种可以帮助 FSHR 肿瘤的一线治疗后当前的卵巢癌治疗,以预防肿瘤复发。