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We recently reported the development of a fully-human, CD3-binding bispecific antibody for immunotherapy of malignant glioma. To translate this therapeutic (hEGFRvIII-CD3- bi-scFv) to clinical trials and to help further the translation of other similar CD3-binding therapeutics, some of which are associated with neurologic toxicities, we performed a good laboratory practice (GLP) toxicity study to assess for potential behavioral, chemical, hematologic, and pathologic toxicities including evaluation for experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). To perform this study, male and female C57/BL6 mice heterozygous for the human CD3 transgene (20/sex) were allocated to one of four designated groups. All animals were administered one dose level of hEGFRvIII-CD3 bi-scFv or vehicle control. Test groups were monitored for feed consumption, changes in body weight, and behavioral disturbances including signs of EAE. Urinalysis, hematologic, and clinical chemistry analysis were also performed. Vehicle and test chemical-treated groups were humanely euthanized 48 hours or 14 days following dose administration. Complete gross necropsy of all tissues was performed, and selected tissues plus all observed gross lesions were collected and evaluated for microscopic changes. This included hematoxylin-eosin histopathological evaluation and Fe-ECR staining for myelin sheath enumeration. There were no abnormal clinical observations or signs of EAE noted during the study. There were no statistical changes in food consumption, body weight gain, or final body weight among groups exposed to hEGFRvIII-CD3 bi-scFv compared to the control groups for the 2- and 14-day timepoints. There were statistical differences in some clinical chemistry, hematologic and urinalysis endpoints, primarily in the females at the 14-day timepoint (hematocrit, calcium, phosphorous, and total protein). No pathological findings related to hEGFRvIII-CD3 bi-scFv administration were observed. A number of gross and microscopic observations were noted but all were considered to be incidental background findings. The results of this study allow for further translation of this and other important CD3 modulating bispecific antibodies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common primary malignant brain tumor in adults and is uniformly lethal. T-cell-based immunotherapy offers a promising platform for treatment given its potential to specifically target tumor tissue while sparing the normal brain. However, the diffuse and infiltrative nature of these tumors in the brain parenchyma may pose an exceptional hurdle to successful immunotherapy in patients. Areas of invasive tumor are thought to reside behind an intact blood brain barrier, isolating them from effective immunosurveillance and thereby predisposing the development of "immunologically silent" tumor peninsulas. Therefore, it remains unclear if adoptively transferred T cells can migrate to and mediate regression in areas of invasive GBM. One barrier has been the lack of a preclinical mouse model that accurately recapitulates the growth patterns of human GBM in vivo. Here, we demonstrate that D-270 MG xenografts exhibit the classical features of GBM and produce the diffuse and invasive tumors seen in patients. Using this model, we designed experiments to assess whether T cells expressing third-generation chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) targeting the tumor-specific mutation of the epidermal growth factor receptor, EGFRvIII, would localize to and treat invasive intracerebral GBM. EGFRvIII-targeted CAR (EGFRvIII+ CAR) T cells demonstrated in vitro EGFRvIII antigen-specific recognition and reactivity to the D-270 MG cell line, which naturally expresses EGFRvIII. Moreover, when administered systemically, EGFRvIII+ CAR T cells localized to areas of invasive tumor, suppressed tumor growth, and enhanced survival of mice with established intracranial D-270 MG tumors. Together, these data demonstrate that systemically administered T cells are capable of migrating to the invasive edges of GBM to mediate antitumor efficacy and tumor regression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temozolomide (TMZ) is an alkylating agent shown to prolong survival in patients with high grade glioma and is routinely used to treat melanoma brain metastases. A prominent side effect of TMZ is induction of profound lymphopenia, which some suggest may be incompatible with immunotherapy. Conversely, it has been proposed that recovery from chemotherapy-induced lymphopenia may actually be exploited to potentiate T-cell responses. Here, we report the first demonstration of TMZ as an immune host-conditioning regimen in an experimental model of brain tumor and examine its impact on antitumor efficacy of a well-characterized peptide vaccine. Our results show that high-dose, myeloablative (MA) TMZ resulted in markedly reduced CD4+, CD8+ T-cell and CD4+Foxp3+ TReg counts. Adoptive transfer of naïve CD8+ T cells and vaccination in this setting led to an approximately 70-fold expansion of antigen-specific CD8+ T cells over controls. Ex vivo analysis of effector functions revealed significantly enhanced levels of pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion from mice receiving MA TMZ when compared to those treated with a lower lymphodepletive, non-myeloablative (NMA) dose. Importantly, MA TMZ, but not NMA TMZ was uniquely associated with an elevation of endogenous IL-2 serum levels, which we also show was required for optimal T-cell expansion. Accordingly, in a murine model of established intracerebral tumor, vaccination-induced immunity in the setting of MA TMZ–but not lymphodepletive, NMA TMZ–led to significantly prolonged survival. Overall, these results may be used to leverage the side-effects of a clinically-approved chemotherapy and should be considered in future study design of immune-based treatments for brain tumors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Preclinical studies in mice have demonstrated that the prophylactic depletion of immunosuppressive regulatory T-cells (TRegs) through targeting the high affinity interleukin-2 (IL-2) receptor (IL-2Rα/CD25) can enhance antitumor immunotherapy. However, therapeutic approaches are complicated by the inadvertent inhibition of IL-2Rα expressing anti-tumor effector T-cells. Objective: To determine if changes in the cytokine milieu during lymphopenia may engender differential signaling requirements that would enable unarmed anti-IL-2Rα monoclonal antibody (MAbs) to selectively deplete TRegs while permitting vaccine-stimulated immune responses. Methodology: A randomized placebo-controlled pilot study was undertaken to examine the ability of the anti-IL-2Rα MAb daclizumab, given at the time of epidermal growth factor receptor variant III (EGFRvIII) targeted peptide vaccination, to safely and selectively deplete TRegs in patients with glioblastoma (GBM) treated with lymphodepleting temozolomide (TMZ). Results and Conclusions: Daclizumab treatment (n = 3) was well-tolerated with no symptoms of autoimmune toxicity and resulted in a significant reduction in the frequency of circulating CD4+Foxp3+ TRegs in comparison to saline controls (n = 3)( p = 0.0464). A significant (p<0.0001) inverse correlation between the frequency of TRegs and the level of EGFRvIII specific humoral responses suggests the depletion of TRegs may be linked to increased vaccine-stimulated humoral immunity. These data suggest this approach deserves further study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current radiographic response criteria for brain tumors have difficulty describing changes surrounding postoperative resection cavities. Volumetric techniques may offer improved assessment, however usually are time-consuming, subjective and require expert opinion and specialized magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sequences. We describe the application of a novel volumetric software algorithm that is nearly fully automated and uses standard T1 pre- and post-contrast MRI sequences. T1-weighted pre- and post-contrast images are automatically fused and normalized. The tumor region of interest is grossly outlined by the user. An atlas of the nasal mucosa is automatically detected and used to normalize levels of enhancement. The volume of enhancing tumor is then automatically calculated. We tested the ability of our method to calculate enhancing tumor volume with resection cavity collapse and when the enhancing tumor is obscured by subacute blood in a resection cavity. To determine variability in results, we compared narrowly-defined tumor regions with tumor regions that include adjacent meningeal enhancement and also compared different contrast enhancement threshold levels used for the automatic calculation of enhancing tumor volume. Our method quantified enhancing tumor volume despite resection cavity collapse. It detected tumor volume increase in the midst of blood products that incorrectly caused decreased measurements by other techniques. Similar trends in volume changes across scans were seen with inclusion or exclusion of meningeal enhancement and despite different automated thresholds for tissue enhancement. Our approach appears to overcome many of the challenges with response assessment of enhancing brain tumors and warrants further examination and validation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temozolomide (TMZ) is an alkylating agent shown to prolong survival in patients with high grade glioma and is routinely used to treat melanoma brain metastases. A prominent side effect of TMZ is induction of profound lymphopenia, which some suggest may be incompatible with immunotherapy. Conversely, it has been proposed that recovery from chemotherapy-induced lymphopenia may actually be exploited to potentiate T-cell responses. Here, we report the first demonstration of TMZ as an immune host-conditioning regimen in an experimental model of brain tumor and examine its impact on antitumor efficacy of a well-characterized peptide vaccine. Our results show that high-dose, myeloablative (MA) TMZ resulted in markedly reduced CD4(+), CD8(+) T-cell and CD4(+)Foxp3(+) TReg counts. Adoptive transfer of naïve CD8(+) T cells and vaccination in this setting led to an approximately 70-fold expansion of antigen-specific CD8(+) T cells over controls. Ex vivo analysis of effector functions revealed significantly enhanced levels of pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion from mice receiving MA TMZ when compared to those treated with a lower lymphodepletive, non-myeloablative (NMA) dose. Importantly, MA TMZ, but not NMA TMZ was uniquely associated with an elevation of endogenous IL-2 serum levels, which we also show was required for optimal T-cell expansion. Accordingly, in a murine model of established intracerebral tumor, vaccination-induced immunity in the setting of MA TMZ-but not lymphodepletive, NMA TMZ-led to significantly prolonged survival. Overall, these results may be used to leverage the side-effects of a clinically-approved chemotherapy and should be considered in future study design of immune-based treatments for brain tumors.