Arming oncolytic adenoviruses with bi-specific T-cell engagers to improve antitumor efficacy
[eng] Oncolytic adenoviruses that selectively replicate in cancer cells while sparing normal tissue have gained considerable attention as novel anticancer drugs. However, clinical trials with these viruses have identified the immune system as a major hurdle for their success in cancer patients. Desp...
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| Tipo de recurso: | tesis doctoral |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2017 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universidad de Barcelona |
| Repositorio: | Dipòsit Digital de la UB |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/111644 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/2445/111644 http://hdl.handle.net/10803/403492 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Virologia Immunoteràpia Adenovirus Oncologia Virology Immunotheraphy Adenoviruses Oncology |
| Sumario: | [eng] Oncolytic adenoviruses that selectively replicate in cancer cells while sparing normal tissue have gained considerable attention as novel anticancer drugs. However, clinical trials with these viruses have identified the immune system as a major hurdle for their success in cancer patients. Despite the existence of a highly immunosuppressive tumor environment, adenovirus-infected cells can nonetheless be efficiently cleared by virus-specific infiltrating cytotoxic T lymphocytes without compromising tumor burden. We hypothesize that arming oncolytic adenoviruses with bi-specific T-cell engagers (BiTEs), a new class of antibodies that re-direct T-cells to cancer cells, might favor antitumor rather than anti-viral immune responses. We have engineered the oncolytic adenovirus ICOVIR-15K to express EGFR-targeting BiTEs under the control of the major late promoter. ICOVIR-15K armed with a BiTE targeting human CD3 and EGFR (ICOVIR-15K-cBiTE) was successfully rescued and it showed similar oncolytic properties as the parental virus. cBiTE expression and secretion was detected in supernatants from ICOVIR-15K-cBiTE-infected cells, and the secreted BiTEs bound specifically to both CD3+ and EGFR+ cells. In cell co-culture assays, ICOVIR-15K-cBiTE-mediated oncolysis resulted in robust T-cell activation, proliferation, and bystander cell-mediated cytotoxicity. Notably, intratumoral injection of this cBiTE-expressing adenovirus increased the persistence and accumulation of tumor-infiltrating T cells in vivo. Moreover, in two distinct tumor xenograft models, combined delivery of ICOVIR-15K-cBiTE with peripheral blood mononuclear cells or T cells enhanced the antitumor efficacy achieved by the parental counterpart. We also demonstrate that another oncolytic adenovirus expressing a chimeric BiTE targeting human EGFR and mouse CD3 (ICOVIR-15K-mcBiTE) induce robust mouse T-cell activation, proliferation, and cell-mediated cytotoxicity of cancer cells in vitro. Thus, ICOVIR-15K-mcBiTE is a promising surrogate of ICOVIR-15K-cBiTE that will aid in future pharmacological and toxicological preclinical studies of BiTE-armed oncolytic adenoviruses. Finally, we show that the combination of ICOVIR-15K-cBiTE with chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy can overcome some of the limitations encountered by both agents as monotherapies. The results described in this thesis demonstrate that BiTE-armed oncolytic adenoviruses hold properties with the potential of solving key limitations in oncolytic virotherapy, and encourage their further evaluation and development. |
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