Need Help?

Enhanced Adjuvanticity of a Personal Neoantigen Vaccine Generates Potent Neoantigen-Specific Immunity

Personalized neoantigen-targeting vaccines can induce durable and diverse T cell responses and have been associated with improved outcomes. To augment immunogenicity, we tested a synthetic long peptide vaccine formulated with the adjuvants Montanide and poly-ICLC in 10 patients with melanoma. The vaccines, co-administered locally with ipilimumab and systemically with nivolumab, generated de novo ex vivo T cell responses against the majority of immunizing neoepitopes in all 9 fully vaccinated patients, and ex vivo CD8+ T cell responses in 6 of 9. Hundreds of circulating and intratumoral T cell receptor (TCR) clonotypes emerged following vaccination that were distinct from those arising after PD-1 inhibition. By linking vaccine-specificity and cellular phenotype of TCRs in post-treatment tumors at single cell resolution, we demonstrate remodeling of the intratumoral T cell repertoire following vaccination. These observations demonstrate the impact of multi-pronged immune adjuvanticity on the T cell repertoire in the context of neoantigen-targeting vaccines.

We are submitting WES data from whole blood samples and tumor FFPE samples, and RNA-seq data from tumor FFPE samples. We are also submitting RNA-seq data from purified tumor samples. scRNA-seq data will also be submitted for skin samples (pre and post neoantigen vaccine dose #3), and tumor samples before starting treatment, before starting neoantigen vaccine Dose #1, and before neoantigen vaccine dose #4. Bulk TCR-seq data will be submitted for blood samples.