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Oncolytic virus (OV) is a replication competent virus that selectively invades cancer cells; as these cells die under the viral burden, the released virus particles proceed to infect other cancer cells. Oncolytic viruses are designed to also be able to stimulate the anticancer immune response. Thus, one may represent an OV by two parameters: its replication potential and its immunogenicity. In this paper we consider a combination therapy with OV and a checkpoint inhibitor, anti-PD-1. We evaluate the efficacy of the combination therapy in terms of the tumor volume at some later time, for example, 6 months from initial treatment. Since T cells kill not only virus-free cancer cells but also virus-infected cancer cells, the following question arises: Does increasing the amount of the checkpoint inhibitor always improve the efficacy? We address this question, by a mathematical model consisting of a system of partial differential equations. We use the model to construct, by simulations, an efficacy map in terms of the doses of the checkpoint inhibitor and the OV injection. We show that there are regions in the map where an increase in the checkpoint inhibitor actually decreases the efficacy of the treatment. We also construct efficacy maps with checkpoint inhibitor vs. the replication potential of the virus that show the same antagonism, namely, an increase in the checkpoint inhibitor may actually decrease the efficacy. These results have implications for clinical trials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accumulating evidence indicates that fractionated radiotherapy (RT) can result in distant non-irradiated (abscopal) tumour regression. Although preclinical studies indicate the importance of T cells in this infrequent phenomenon, these studies do not preclude that other immune mechanisms exhibit an addition role in the abscopal effect. We therefore addressed the question whether in addition to T cell mediated responses also humoral anti-tumour responses are modulated after fractionated RT and whether systemic dendritic cell (DC) stimulation can enhance tumour-specific antibody production. We selected the 67NR mammary carcinoma model since this tumour showed spontaneous antibody production in all tumour-bearing mice. Fractionated RT to the primary tumour was associated with a survival benefit and a delayed growth of a non-irradiated (contralateral) secondary tumour. Notably, fractionated RT did not affect anti-tumour antibody titers and the composition of the immunoglobulin (Ig) isotypes. Likewise, we demonstrated that treatment of tumour-bearing Balb/C mice with DC stimulating growth factor Flt3-L did neither modulate the magnitude nor the composition of the humoral immune response. Finally, we evaluated the immune infiltrate and Ig isotype content of the tumour tissue using flow cytometry and found no differences between treatment groups that were indicative for local antibody production. In conclusion, we demonstrate that the 67NR mammary carcinoma in Balb/C mice is associated with a pre-existing antibody response. And, we show that in tumour-bearing Balb/C mice with abscopal tumour regression such pre-existing antibody responses are not altered upon fractionated RT and/or DC stimulation with Flt3-L. Our research indicates that evaluating the humoral immune response in the setting of abscopal tumour regression is not invariably associated with therapeutic effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Natural regulatory T (Treg) cells interfere with multiple functions, which are crucial for the development of strong anti-tumour responses. In a model of 4T1 mammary carcinoma, depletion of CD25+Tregs results in tumour regression in Balb/c mice, but the mechanisms underlying this process are not fully understood. Here, we show that partial Treg depletion leads to the generation of a particular effector CD8 T cell subset expressing CD11c and low level of PD-1 in tumour draining lymph nodes. These cells have the capacity to migrate into the tumour, to kill DCs, and to locally regulate the anti-tumour response. These events are concordant with a substantial increase in CD11b+ resident dendritic cells (DCs) subsets in draining lymph nodes followed by CD8+ DCs. These results indicate that Treg depletion leads to tumour regression by unmasking an increase of DC subsets as a part of a program that optimizes the microenvironment by orchestrating the activation, amplification, and migration of high numbers of fully differentiated CD8+CD11c+PD1lo effector T cells to the tumour sites. They also indicate that a critical pattern of DC subsets correlates with the evolution of the anti-tumour response and provide a template for Treg depletion and DC-based therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]