A novel cancer vaccine for melanoma based on an approved vaccine against measles, mumps, and rubella

Manlio Fusciello; Erkko Ylösmäki; Sara Feola; Arttu Uoti; Beatriz Martins; Karri Aalto; Firas Hamdan; Jacopo Chiaro; Salvatore Russo; Tapani Viitala; Vincenzo Cerullo

doi:10.1016/j.omto.2022.04.002

A novel cancer vaccine for melanoma based on an approved vaccine against measles, mumps, and rubella

Manlio Fusciello
, Erkko Ylösmäki^*
, Sara Feola
, Arttu Uoti
, Beatriz Martins
, Karri Aalto
, Firas Hamdan
, Jacopo Chiaro
, Salvatore Russo
, Tapani Viitala
, Vincenzo Cerullo^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Scientific › peer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Common vaccines for infectious diseases have been repurposed as cancer immunotherapies. The intratumoral administration of these repurposed vaccines can induce immune cell infiltration into the treated tumor. Here, we have used an approved trivalent live attenuated measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine in our previously developed PeptiENV cancer vaccine platform. The intratumoral administration of this novel MMR-containing PeptiENV cancer vaccine significantly increased both intratumoral as well as systemic tumor-specific T cell responses. In addition, PeptiENV therapy, in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy, improved tumor growth control and survival as well as increased the number of mice responsive to immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy. Importantly, mice pre-vaccinated with the MMR vaccine responded equally well, if not better, to the PeptiENV therapy, indicating that pre-existing immunity against the MMR vaccine viruses does not compromise the use of this novel cancer vaccine platform.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	137-145
Number of pages	9
Journal	Molecular Therapy - Oncolytics
Volume	25
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.omto.2022.04.002
Publication status	Published - 16 Jun 2022
Externally published	Yes
MoE publication type	A1 Journal article-refereed

Funding

E.Y. received funding from the Academy of Finland (project No. 1317206 ). V.C. received funding from the European Research Council under the Horizon 2020 framework ( https://erc.europa.eu ), ERC -consolidator Grant (Agreement No. 681219 ), Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation (Project No. 4705796 ), HiLIFE Fellow (project No. 797011004 ), Cancer Finnish Foundation (project No. 4706116 ), Magnus Ehrnrooth Foundation (project No. 4706235 ), and the Academy of Finland and Digital Precision Cancer Medicine Flagship iCAN. E.Y. received funding from the Academy of Finland (project No. 1317206). V.C. received funding from the European Research Council under the Horizon 2020 framework (https://erc.europa.eu), ERC-consolidator Grant (Agreement No. 681219), Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation (Project No. 4705796), HiLIFE Fellow (project No. 797011004), Cancer Finnish Foundation (project No. 4706116), Magnus Ehrnrooth Foundation (project No. 4706235), and the Academy of Finland and Digital Precision Cancer Medicine Flagship iCAN. E.Y. M.F. A.U. and V.C. conceived and planned the experiments. E.Y. M.F. A.U. S.F. F.H. J.C. K.A. and T.V. carried out the experiments. E.Y. M.F. A.U. B.M. S.F. F.H. J.C. K.A. T.V. and V.C. contributed to the interpretation of the results. E.Y. wrote the manuscript. All authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis, and manuscript. Vincenzo Cerullo is a co-founder and shareholder at VALO therapeutics.

Keywords

cancer vaccines
measles
mumps
oncolytic viruses
PeptiENV
personalized medicine
Priorix
rubella

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10.1016/j.omto.2022.04.002

Cite this

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title = "A novel cancer vaccine for melanoma based on an approved vaccine against measles, mumps, and rubella",

abstract = "Common vaccines for infectious diseases have been repurposed as cancer immunotherapies. The intratumoral administration of these repurposed vaccines can induce immune cell infiltration into the treated tumor. Here, we have used an approved trivalent live attenuated measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine in our previously developed PeptiENV cancer vaccine platform. The intratumoral administration of this novel MMR-containing PeptiENV cancer vaccine significantly increased both intratumoral as well as systemic tumor-specific T cell responses. In addition, PeptiENV therapy, in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy, improved tumor growth control and survival as well as increased the number of mice responsive to immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy. Importantly, mice pre-vaccinated with the MMR vaccine responded equally well, if not better, to the PeptiENV therapy, indicating that pre-existing immunity against the MMR vaccine viruses does not compromise the use of this novel cancer vaccine platform.",

keywords = "cancer vaccines, measles, mumps, oncolytic viruses, PeptiENV, personalized medicine, Priorix, rubella",

author = "Manlio Fusciello and Erkko Yl{\"o}sm{\"a}ki and Sara Feola and Arttu Uoti and Beatriz Martins and Karri Aalto and Firas Hamdan and Jacopo Chiaro and Salvatore Russo and Tapani Viitala and Vincenzo Cerullo",

note = "Funding Information: E.Y. received funding from the Academy of Finland (project No. 1317206 ). V.C. received funding from the European Research Council under the Horizon 2020 framework ( https://erc.europa.eu ), ERC -consolidator Grant (Agreement No. 681219 ), Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation (Project No. 4705796 ), HiLIFE Fellow (project No. 797011004 ), Cancer Finnish Foundation (project No. 4706116 ), Magnus Ehrnrooth Foundation (project No. 4706235 ), and the Academy of Finland and Digital Precision Cancer Medicine Flagship iCAN. Funding Information: E.Y. received funding from the Academy of Finland (project No. 1317206). V.C. received funding from the European Research Council under the Horizon 2020 framework (https://erc.europa.eu), ERC-consolidator Grant (Agreement No. 681219), Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation (Project No. 4705796), HiLIFE Fellow (project No. 797011004), Cancer Finnish Foundation (project No. 4706116), Magnus Ehrnrooth Foundation (project No. 4706235), and the Academy of Finland and Digital Precision Cancer Medicine Flagship iCAN. E.Y. M.F. A.U. and V.C. conceived and planned the experiments. E.Y. M.F. A.U. S.F. F.H. J.C. K.A. and T.V. carried out the experiments. E.Y. M.F. A.U. B.M. S.F. F.H. J.C. K.A. T.V. and V.C. contributed to the interpretation of the results. E.Y. wrote the manuscript. All authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis, and manuscript. Vincenzo Cerullo is a co-founder and shareholder at VALO therapeutics. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022 The Author(s)",

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doi = "10.1016/j.omto.2022.04.002",

language = "English",

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journal = "Molecular Therapy - Oncolytics",

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T1 - A novel cancer vaccine for melanoma based on an approved vaccine against measles, mumps, and rubella

AU - Fusciello, Manlio

AU - Ylösmäki, Erkko

AU - Feola, Sara

AU - Uoti, Arttu

AU - Martins, Beatriz

AU - Aalto, Karri

AU - Hamdan, Firas

AU - Chiaro, Jacopo

AU - Russo, Salvatore

AU - Viitala, Tapani

AU - Cerullo, Vincenzo

N1 - Funding Information: E.Y. received funding from the Academy of Finland (project No. 1317206 ). V.C. received funding from the European Research Council under the Horizon 2020 framework ( https://erc.europa.eu ), ERC -consolidator Grant (Agreement No. 681219 ), Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation (Project No. 4705796 ), HiLIFE Fellow (project No. 797011004 ), Cancer Finnish Foundation (project No. 4706116 ), Magnus Ehrnrooth Foundation (project No. 4706235 ), and the Academy of Finland and Digital Precision Cancer Medicine Flagship iCAN. Funding Information: E.Y. received funding from the Academy of Finland (project No. 1317206). V.C. received funding from the European Research Council under the Horizon 2020 framework (https://erc.europa.eu), ERC-consolidator Grant (Agreement No. 681219), Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation (Project No. 4705796), HiLIFE Fellow (project No. 797011004), Cancer Finnish Foundation (project No. 4706116), Magnus Ehrnrooth Foundation (project No. 4706235), and the Academy of Finland and Digital Precision Cancer Medicine Flagship iCAN. E.Y. M.F. A.U. and V.C. conceived and planned the experiments. E.Y. M.F. A.U. S.F. F.H. J.C. K.A. and T.V. carried out the experiments. E.Y. M.F. A.U. B.M. S.F. F.H. J.C. K.A. T.V. and V.C. contributed to the interpretation of the results. E.Y. wrote the manuscript. All authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis, and manuscript. Vincenzo Cerullo is a co-founder and shareholder at VALO therapeutics. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s)

PY - 2022/6/16

Y1 - 2022/6/16

N2 - Common vaccines for infectious diseases have been repurposed as cancer immunotherapies. The intratumoral administration of these repurposed vaccines can induce immune cell infiltration into the treated tumor. Here, we have used an approved trivalent live attenuated measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine in our previously developed PeptiENV cancer vaccine platform. The intratumoral administration of this novel MMR-containing PeptiENV cancer vaccine significantly increased both intratumoral as well as systemic tumor-specific T cell responses. In addition, PeptiENV therapy, in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy, improved tumor growth control and survival as well as increased the number of mice responsive to immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy. Importantly, mice pre-vaccinated with the MMR vaccine responded equally well, if not better, to the PeptiENV therapy, indicating that pre-existing immunity against the MMR vaccine viruses does not compromise the use of this novel cancer vaccine platform.

AB - Common vaccines for infectious diseases have been repurposed as cancer immunotherapies. The intratumoral administration of these repurposed vaccines can induce immune cell infiltration into the treated tumor. Here, we have used an approved trivalent live attenuated measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine in our previously developed PeptiENV cancer vaccine platform. The intratumoral administration of this novel MMR-containing PeptiENV cancer vaccine significantly increased both intratumoral as well as systemic tumor-specific T cell responses. In addition, PeptiENV therapy, in combination with immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy, improved tumor growth control and survival as well as increased the number of mice responsive to immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy. Importantly, mice pre-vaccinated with the MMR vaccine responded equally well, if not better, to the PeptiENV therapy, indicating that pre-existing immunity against the MMR vaccine viruses does not compromise the use of this novel cancer vaccine platform.

KW - cancer vaccines

KW - measles

KW - mumps

KW - oncolytic viruses

KW - PeptiENV

KW - personalized medicine

KW - Priorix

KW - rubella

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85129029423

U2 - 10.1016/j.omto.2022.04.002

DO - 10.1016/j.omto.2022.04.002

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85129029423

SN - 2372-7705

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EP - 145

JO - Molecular Therapy - Oncolytics

JF - Molecular Therapy - Oncolytics

ER -

A novel cancer vaccine for melanoma based on an approved vaccine against measles, mumps, and rubella

Abstract

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Keywords

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