Although the safety of
vaccine approaches for central nervous system (CNS)
malignancies has been established in early phase clinical trials, the success of a
vaccine strategy will depend critically on the ability of effector T cells to home in to CNS
tumors and durably exert antitumor effects. Based on our recent studies, efficient CNS
tumor homing is a characteristic of cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) with a type 1 phenotype (Tc1), and this appears to be related to the Tc1 response to the type 1
CXC chemokine ligand (CXCL) 10 [also known as
interferon (IFN)-inducible
protein (IP)-10] and expression of an
integrin receptor very late antigen (VLA)-4 on Tc1. In addition, we have previously shown that direct intratumoral delivery of dendritic cells (DCs) ex vivo engineered to secrete IFN-alpha further enhances Tc1 homing via upregulation of CXCL10/IP-10 in the tumor microenvironment. As a means to induce IFN-alpha and CXCL10/IP-10 in the CNS tumor microenvironment in a clinically feasible manner, we used administration of
polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid stabilized by
lysine and
carboxymethylcellulose (
poly-ICLC), a
ligand for
toll-like receptor 3 and
melanoma differentiation-associated gene 5 (MDA5) in combination with vaccinations targeting CTL
epitopes derived from
glioma-associated
antigens (
GAAs). The combination of subcutaneous vaccination and i.m.
poly-ICLC administration remarkably promoted systemic induction of
antigen GAA-specific Tc1s expressing
VLA-4 in the CNS
tumors and improved the survival of
tumor-bearing mice in the absence of detectable autoimmunity. Based on these data, we have implemented a phase I/II vaccination study using type 1 polarizing DCs loaded with GAA
peptides in combination with
poly-ICLC in patients with recurrent
malignant glioma.