Synergistic anti-tumor immune response to combination immunotherapy consisting of anti-tumor antibodies, extended half-life Interleukin-2, and other immunomodulatory agents

Cancer immunotherapies under development have generally focused on either stimulating T-cell immunity or driving antibody-directed effector functions of the innate immune system such as antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC). However, as our understanding of antitumor immune responses grows, it has become increasingly apparent that single agent therapies may be insufficient to effectively stimulate all aspects of a complex robust anti-tumor response in a large proportion of patients. Thus, rational combination of single agent immunotherapies has become an area of increasing interest. In this work, we find that a combination of an anti-tumor antigen antibody and an untargeted IL-2 fusion protein with delayed systemic clearance induces significant tumor control in aggressive isogenic tumor models via a concerted innate and adaptive response. We find that this therapy induces the infiltration of various immune effectors such as neutrophils, eosinophils NK cells, and CD8+ T-cells that appear to direct cytolytic activity against tumor cells. This combination therapy also induces an intratumoral "cytokine storm," potentially re-polarizing the tumor microenvironment into one that is immunologically anti-tumor. We also identify cross-talk between NK cells and macrophages to induce intratumoral recruitment of neutrophils but with the requisite presence of anti-tumor antibodies and IL-2 simultaneously. We further enhanced the efficacy of this two-component therapy with the addition of a potent amphiphile-based anti-tumor peptide vaccine in combination with checkpoint blockade of anti-PD-I and anti-CTLA-4. This multi-component therapy was tested in a setting of a low-mutational burden GEM lung cancer model with a single known and targetable antigen: human carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA). We find that in the subcutaneous setting and autochthonous setting, both components of checkpoint blockade are necessary for full efficacy. While a 5- component therapy is admittedly unwieldy for clinical translation, understanding the complementary yet non-overlapping contributions of each agent may inform improved development of additional immunotherapy agents and their combinations in the clinic.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2016

Author dc:creator

• Zhu, Eric F. (Eric Franklin)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• K. Dane Wittrup.

• Chemical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/107872

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/107872