Purpose: Cancer immunotherapy is a potent treatment modality, but its clinical benefit depends on the tumor's immune profile. Here, we used mJX-594 (JX), a targeted and GM-CSF-armed oncolytic vaccinia virus, as a strategy to remodel the tumor microenvironment (TME) and subsequently increase sensitivity to aPD-1 and/or aCTLA-4 immunotherapy.Experimental Design: The remodeling of the TME was determined using histologic, flow-cytometric, and NanoString immune profiling analyses. JX was intratumorally injected into implanted Renca kidney tumors or MMTV-PyMT transgenic mouse breast cancers with or without aPD-1 and/or aCTLA-4. Various combination regimens were used to evaluate immunotherapeutic anticancer responses.Results: Intratumoral injection of JX remodeled the TME through dynamic changes in the immune system, as shown by increased tumor-infiltrating T cells and upregulation of immune-related gene signatures. This remodeling induced conversion of a noninflamed tumor into an inflamed tumor. JX virotherapy led to enhanced abscopal effects in distant tumors, with increased intratumoral infiltration of CD8 þ T cells. A depletion study revealed that GM-CSF is an indispensable regulator of anticancer efficacy of JX. Dualcombination therapy with intratumoral JX and systemic aPD-1 or aCTLA-4 further enhanced the anticancer immune response, regardless of various treatment schedules. Of note, triple combination immunotherapy with JX, aPD-1, and aCTLA-4 elicited the most potent anticancer immunity and induced complete tumor regression and long-term overall survival.Conclusions: Our results show that intratumoral JX treatment induces dramatic remodeling of the TME and more potently suppresses cancer progression with immunecheckpoint blockades by overcoming resistance to immunotherapy.
A focused PROTAC library was developed to degrade both IGF-1R and Src proteins, which are associated with various cancers. PROTACs with IGF-1R and Src degradation potentials were synthesized by tethering different inhibitor warhead units and the E3 ligase (CRBN) recruiting-pomalidomide with various linkers. The designed PROTACs 12a-b inhibited the proliferation and migration of MCF7 and A549 cancer cells with low micromolar potency (1-5 µM) in various cellular assays.
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