Association of Baseline and Pharmacodynamic Biomarkers With Outcomes in Patients Treated With the PD-1 Inhibitor Budigalimab.

Budigalimab, a novel anti-PD-1 monoclonal antibody, demonstrated efficacy and biomarker pharmacodynamics in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) or non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) consistent with those reported by other PD-1 inhibitors. Herein are presented additional outcomes of biomarker analyses from the phase 1 study of budigalimab monotherapy in patients with HNSCC and NSCLC (NCT03000257). PD-1 inhibitor naive patients with advanced HNSCC (n=41) or NSCLC (n=40) received budigalimab intravenously at 250 mg every 2 weeks (Q2W) or 500 mg Q4W until progression.

Model Informed Dosing Regimen and Phase I Results of the Anti-PD-1 Antibody Budigalimab (ABBV-181).

Budigalimab is a humanized, recombinant, Fc mutated IgG1 monoclonal antibody targeting programmed cell death 1 (PD-1) receptor, currently in phase I clinical trials. The safety, efficacy, pharmacokinetics (PKs), pharmacodynamics (PDs), and budigalimab dose selection from monotherapy dose escalation and multihistology expansion cohorts were evaluated in patients with previously treated advanced solid tumors who received budigalimab at 1, 3, or 10 mg/kg intravenously every 2 weeks (Q2W) in dose escalation, including Japanese patients that received 3 and 10 mg/kg Q2W. PK modeling and PK/PD assessments informed the dosing regimen in expansion phase using data from body-weight-based dosing in the escalation phase, based on which patients in the multihistology expansion cohort received flat doses of 250 mg Q2W or 500 mg every four weeks (Q4W).

Antibody and B cell responses to an investigational adjuvanted RSV vaccine for older adults.

: Infections with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) cause significant morbidity and hospitalization in older adults. We studied the humoral, mucosal and B cell responses of an investigational adjuvanted RSV sF vaccine, MEDI7510, in older adults. : In a substudy of a randomized (1:1), double-blind, placebo-controlled study of MEDI7510 in adults ≥60 years of age, we collected blood and nasal secretions at days 0, 8, 29, 91 and 180 post-vaccination to measure F-specific IgG and IgA antibodies by ELISA, and plasmablasts and memory B cells by IgA/IgG dual-color fluorospot.

Baseline immune profile by CyTOF can predict response to an investigational adjuvanted vaccine in elderly adults.

Background: Mass cytometry, or CyTOF (Cytometry by Time-of-Flight), permits the simultaneous detection of over 40 phenotypic and functional immune markers in individual cells without the issues of spectral overlap seen in traditional flow cytometry.

Methods: In this study, we applied CyTOF to comprehensively characterize the circulating immune cell populations in elderly individuals both before and after administration of an investigational adjuvanted protein vaccine against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in a Phase 1a trial. Antigen-specific T cell responses to RSV by IFNγ ELISPOT had been observed in most but not all recipients in the highest dose cohort in this trial.

Development of a High-Throughput Respiratory Syncytial Virus Fluorescent Focus-Based Microneutralization Assay.

Neutralizing antibodies specific for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) represent a major protective mechanism against RSV infection, as demonstrated by the efficacy of the immune-prophylactic monoclonal antibody palivizumab in preventing RSV-associated lower respiratory tract infections in premature infants. Accordingly, the RSV neutralization assay has become a key functional method to assess the neutralizing activity of serum antibodies in preclinical animal models, epidemiology studies, and clinical trials. In this study, we qualified a 24-h, fluorescent focus-based microneutralization (RSVA FFA-MN) method that requires no medium exchange or pre- or postinfection processing to detect green fluorescent protein-expressing RSV strain A2 (RSVA-GFP)-infected cells, using a high-content imaging system for automated image acquisition and focus enumeration.

Dose Selection for an Adjuvanted Respiratory Syncytial Virus F Protein Vaccine for Older Adults Based on Humoral and Cellular Immune Responses.

This is the second phase 1 study of a respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine containing RSV fusion protein (sF) adjuvanted with glucopyranosyl lipid A (GLA) in a squalene-based 2% stable emulsion (GLA-SE). In this randomized, double-blind study, 261 subjects aged ≥60 years received inactivated influenza vaccine (IIV), a vaccine containing 120 μg sF with escalating doses of GLA (1, 2.5, or 5 μg) in SE, or a vaccine containing 80 μg sF with 2.

Enhanced immunogenicity of a respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) F subunit vaccine formulated with the adjuvant GLA-SE in cynomolgus macaques.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) causes significant disease in elderly adults, but an effective vaccine is not yet available. We have previously reported that vaccines consisting of engineered respiratory syncytial virus soluble fusion protein (RSV sF) adjuvanted with glucopyranosyl lipid A (GLA) in an oil-in-water emulsion (stable emulsion [SE]) induce RSV F-specific T and B cell responses in mice and rats that protect from viral challenge. Here, we evaluated the immunogenicity of GLA-SE adjuvanted RSV sF vs unadjuvanted RSV sF vaccines in cynomolgus macaques (Macaca fascicularis).

A novel respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) F subunit vaccine adjuvanted with GLA-SE elicits robust protective TH1-type humoral and cellular immunity in rodent models.

Background: Illness associated with Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) remains an unmet medical need in both full-term infants and older adults. The fusion glycoprotein (F) of RSV, which plays a key role in RSV infection and is a target of neutralizing antibodies, is an attractive vaccine target for inducing RSV-specific immunity.

Methodology And Principal Findings: BALB/c mice and cotton rats, two well-characterized rodent models of RSV infection, were used to evaluate the immunogenicity of intramuscularly administered RSV vaccine candidates consisting of purified soluble F (sF) protein formulated with TLR4 agonist glucopyranosyl lipid A (GLA), stable emulsion (SE), GLA-SE, or alum adjuvants.

Molecular and cellular response profiles induced by the TLR4 agonist-based adjuvant Glucopyranosyl Lipid A.

Background: Toll-like receptor (TLR)4 agonists are known potent immunostimulatory compounds. These compounds can be formulated as part of novel adjuvants to enhance vaccine medicated immune responses. However, the contribution of the formulation to the innate in vivo activity of TLR4 agonist compounds is not well understood.

Src kinase and Syk activation initiate PI3K signaling by a chimeric latent membrane protein 1 in Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)+ B cell lymphomas.

The B lymphotrophic γ-herpesvirus EBV is associated with a variety of lymphoid- and epithelial-derived malignancies, including B cell lymphomas in immunocompromised and immunosuppressed individuals. The primary oncogene of EBV, latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1), activates the PI3K/Akt pathway to induce the autocrine growth factor, IL-10, in EBV-infected B cells, but the mechanisms underlying PI3K activation remain incompletely understood. Using small molecule inhibition and siRNA strategies in human B cell lines expressing a chimeric, signaling-inducible LMP1 protein, nerve growth factor receptor (NGFR)-LMP1, we show that NGFR-LMP1 utilizes Syk to activate PI3K/Akt signaling and induce IL-10 production.

Tumor-derived variants of Epstein-Barr virus latent membrane protein 1 induce sustained Erk activation and c-Fos.

Latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1) of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a proven oncogene that is essential for transformation of human B cells by the virus. LMP1 induces constitutive activation of several signal transduction pathways involving nuclear factor kappaB, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/Akt, and the mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPK) p38, c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (Erk). Sequencing of LMP1 isolated from a panel of EBV+ B cell lymphomas identified three different variants of LMP1, each distinct from the B95.

Latent membrane protein 1 of EBV activates phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase to induce production of IL-10.

EBV is a B lymphotrophic gamma-herpesvirus that is associated with multiple human malignancies, including posttransplant lymphoproliferative disorder. The EBV-encoded protein, latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1), is required for oncogenic transformation of human B cells by EBV. An important consequence of LMP1 expression in EBV-infected B cells is the induction of cellular IL-10, which acts as an autocrine growth factor for B cell lymphomas.

EBV can protect latently infected B cell lymphomas from death receptor-induced apoptosis.

The relationship between EBV infection and sensitivity to death receptor (DR)-induced apoptosis is poorly understood. Using EBV- and EBV+ BJAB cells, we provide the first evidence that EBV can protect latently infected B cell lymphomas from apoptosis triggered through Fas or TRAIL receptors. Caspase 8 activation was impaired and cellular FLIP recruitment was enriched in death-inducing signaling complexes formed in EBV-infected BJAB cells relative to parent BJAB cells.

TCR vaccines against a murine T cell lymphoma: a primary role for antibodies of the IgG2c class in tumor protection.

Tumor-associated proteins can act as effective immunotherapeutic targets. Immunization with tumor TCR protein conjugated to the immunogenic protein keyhole limpet hemocyanin (KLH) protects mice from tumor challenge with the murine T cell lymphoma C6VL. The immune mechanisms responsible for this tumor protection are of interest for designing more effective vaccine strategies.