Repurposing the yellow fever vaccine for intratumoral immunotherapy.

Live 17D is widely used as a prophylactic vaccine strain for yellow fever virus that induces potent neutralizing humoral and cellular immunity against the wild-type pathogen. 17D replicates and kills mouse and human tumor cell lines but not non-transformed human cells. Intratumoral injections with viable 17D markedly delay transplanted tumor progression in a CD8 T-cell-dependent manner. In mice bearing bilateral tumors in which only one is intratumorally injected, contralateral therapeutic effects are observed consistent with more prominent CD8 T-cell infiltrates and a treatment-related reduction of Tregs. Additive efficacy effects were observed upon co-treatment with intratumoral 17D and systemic anti-CD137 and anti-PD-1 immunostimulatory monoclonal antibodies. Importantly, when mice were preimmunized with 17D, intratumoral 17D treatment achieved better local and distant antitumor immunity. Such beneficial effects of prevaccination are in part explained by the potentiation of CD4 and CD8 T-cell infiltration in the treated tumor. The repurposed use of a GMP-grade vaccine to be given via the intratumoral route in prevaccinated patients constitutes a clinically feasible and safe immunotherapy approach.

High IL-1R8 expression in breast tumors promotes tumor growth and contributes to impaired antitumor immunity.

Tumors develop numerous strategies to fine-tune inflammation and avoid detection and eradication by the immune system. The identification of mechanisms leading to local immune dysregulation is critical to improve cancer therapy. We here demonstrate that Interleukin-1 receptor 8 (IL-1R8 - previously known as SIGIRR/TIR8), a negative regulator of Toll-Like and Interleukin-1 Receptor family signaling, is up-regulated during breast epithelial cell transformation and in primary breast tumors. IL-1R8 expression in transformed breast epithelial cells reduced IL-1-dependent NF-κB activation and production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, inhibited NK cell activation and favored M2-like macrophage polarization. In a murine breast cancer model (MMTV-neu), IL-1R8-deficiency reduced tumor growth and metastasis and was associated with increased mobilization and activation of immune cells, such as NK cells and CD8+ T cells. Finally, immune-gene signature analysis in clinical specimens revealed that high IL-1R8 expression is associated with impaired innate immune sensing and T-cell exclusion from the tumor microenvironment. Our results indicate that high IL-1R8 expression acts as a novel immunomodulatory mechanism leading to dysregulated immunity with important implications for breast cancer immunotherapy.

Targeting NK-cell checkpoints for cancer immunotherapy.

Natural Killer (NK) cells are cytotoxic lymphocytes specialized in early defense against virus-infected and transformed cells. NK-cell function is regulated by activating and inhibitory surface receptors recognizing their ligands on transformed cells. Modulation of NK numbers and/or function by a variety of agents such as cytokines and monoclonal antibodies may result in enhanced anti-tumor activity. Recombinant cytokines (i.e., IL-15 and IL-2), antibodies blocking inhibitory receptors (i.e., KIR, NKG2A and TIGIT) and agonists delivering signals via CD137, NKG2D and CD16 stand out as the most suitable opportunities. These agents can be used to potentiate NKcell- mediated antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) against antibody-coated tumor cells, offering potential for multiple combinatorial immunotherapy strategies against cancer.