Our long-term goal is to develop therapeutic and prophylactic vaccines that induce regression and prevent progression of metastatic ocular melanoma, a disease for which there is no current treatment. To achieve this goal we have designed cell-based vaccines that activate tumor-specific CD4+ T cells, a key cell population that facilities CD8+ T cell-mediated cytotoxicity and memory. The ocular melanoma """"""""MHC II vaccines"""""""" consist of tumor cells that are genetically modified to express the costimulatory molecule CD80 and MHC class II alleles that are syngeneic to the tumor-bearing host. If the vaccine cells and the host share MHC I alleles, the vaccines also activate CD8+ T cells. Previous studies in mice demonstrated significant therapeutic efficacy against established primary and spontaneously metastatic cancers. Because the vaccines lack the MHC ll-accessory molecule, Invariant chain (li), which is expressed in all professional antigen presenting cells (APC), we have hypothesized that the vaccines present novel MHC ll-restricted peptides which are not produced by professional APC. We have spent years 1-4 of this grant translating the vaccines for human use and have made a series of ocular melanoma vaccines that express CD80 plus a variety of HLA-DR alleles in the absence of li. These vaccines activate human PBMC to endogenously synthesized tumor antigens in vitro. During the next grant period we will determine if the basic concept of MHC II vaccines has therapeutic efficacy in human systems and will exploit the mechanistic insight we have gained during the previous grant period to improve vaccine design. We propose four Specific Aims.
Aim 1 : Determine if MHC II """"""""cocktail"""""""" vaccines activate patients'T cells to autologous tumor and if patients are responsive to the vaccines throughout the course of their disease.
Aim 2 : Determine if ocular melanoma MHC II vaccines prepared from primary tumors, which reside in the immune privileged site of the eye, are more efficacious than vaccines prepared from metastatic tumor cells that reside in the liver, a non-privileged site.
Aim 3 : Determine if ocular melanoma cells transduced with CD80, the MHC class II transactivator (CIITA), and down-regulated for li activate tumor-specific T cells.
Aim 4 : Determine if the MHC ll+li- vaccines produce a novel repertoire of peptides and if ocular melanoma patients'responses are skewed towards the novel peptides.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Cancer Institute (NCI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01CA084232-08
Application #
7759539
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-CII-M (01))
Program Officer
Yovandich, Jason L
Project Start
2000-04-01
Project End
2012-01-31
Budget Start
2010-02-01
Budget End
2011-01-31
Support Year
8
Fiscal Year
2010
Total Cost
$271,147
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Maryland Balt CO Campus
Department
Biology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
061364808
City
Baltimore
State
MD
Country
United States
Zip Code
21250
Ostrand-Rosenberg, Suzanne; Fenselau, Catherine (2018) Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cells: Immune-Suppressive Cells That Impair Antitumor Immunity and Are Sculpted by Their Environment. J Immunol 200:422-431
Ostrand-Rosenberg, Suzanne (2018) Myeloid derived-suppressor cells: their role in cancer and obesity. Curr Opin Immunol 51:68-75
Horn, Lucas A; Long, Tiha M; Atkinson, Ryan et al. (2018) Soluble CD80 Protein Delays Tumor Growth and Promotes Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes. Cancer Immunol Res 6:59-68
Horn, Lucas A; Ciavattone, Nicholas G; Atkinson, Ryan et al. (2017) CD3xPDL1 bi-specific T cell engager (BiTE) simultaneously activates T cells and NKT cells, kills PDL1+ tumor cells, and extends the survival of tumor-bearing humanized mice. Oncotarget 8:57964-57980
Ostrand-Rosenberg, Suzanne (2016) Tolerance and immune suppression in the tumor microenvironment. Cell Immunol 299:23-9
Parker, Katherine H; Horn, Lucas A; Ostrand-Rosenberg, Suzanne (2016) High-mobility group box protein 1 promotes the survival of myeloid-derived suppressor cells by inducing autophagy. J Leukoc Biol 100:463-70
Beury, Daniel W; Carter, Kayla A; Nelson, Cassandra et al. (2016) Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cell Survival and Function Are Regulated by the Transcription Factor Nrf2. J Immunol 196:3470-8
Ostrand-Rosenberg, Suzanne; Horn, Lucas A; Alvarez, Juan A (2015) Novel strategies for inhibiting PD-1 pathway-mediated immune suppression while simultaneously delivering activating signals to tumor-reactive T cells. Cancer Immunol Immunother 64:1287-93
Parker, Katherine H; Beury, Daniel W; Ostrand-Rosenberg, Suzanne (2015) Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cells: Critical Cells Driving Immune Suppression in the Tumor Microenvironment. Adv Cancer Res 128:95-139
Ostrand-Rosenberg, Suzanne; Horn, Lucas A; Haile, Samuel T (2014) The programmed death-1 immune-suppressive pathway: barrier to antitumor immunity. J Immunol 193:3835-41

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