A novel cancer vaccine for melanoma based on an approved vaccine against measles, mumps, and rubella
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.
- Drug Research Program (DRP) ImmunoViroTherapy Lab (IVT), Division of Pharmaceutical Biosciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Helsinki, Viikinkaari 5E, 00790 Helsinki, Finland.
- Helsinki Institute of Life Science (HiLIFE), University of Helsinki, Fabianinkatu 33, 00710 Helsinki, Finland.
- Translational Immunology Program (TRIMM), Faculty of Medicine Helsinki University, University of Helsinki, Haartmaninkatu 8, 00290 Helsinki, Finland.
- Pharmaceutical Biophysics Research Group, Drug Research Program, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
- Department of Molecular Medicine and Medical Biotechnology, Naples University “Federico II”, S. Pansini 5, Naples, Italy.