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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2023.11.29.569123

Activating neutrophils by co-administration of immunogenic recombinant modified vaccinia virus Ankara and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor for the treatment of malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor

Wang, Y.·Liu, S.·Yan, J.·Baseer-Tariq, S.·Salla, B.·Ji, L.·Li, M.·Chi, P.·Deng, L.
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Abstract

Malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor (MPNST) is a rare, aggressive soft-tissue sarcoma with a poor prognosis and is insensitive to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy. Loss-of-function of the histone modifying polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) components, EED or SUZ12, is one of the main mechanisms of malignant transformation. In a murine model of MPNST, PRC2-loss tumors have an "immune desert" phenotype and intratumoral (IT) delivery immunogenic modified vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA) sensitized the PRC2-loss tumors to ICB. Here we show that IT MQ833, a second-generation recombinant modified vaccinia virus Ankara virus, results in neutrophil recruitment and activation and neutrophil-dependent tumor killing in the MPNST model. MQ833 was engineered by deleting three viral immune evasion genes, E5R, E3L, and WR199, and expressing three transgenes, including the two membrane-bound Flt3L and OX40L, and IL-12 with an extracellular matrix anchoring signal. Furthermore, we explored strategies to enhance anti-tumor effects of MQ833 by co-administration of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF).

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Wang, Y., Liu, S., Yan, J., Baseer-Tariq, S., Salla, B., Ji, L., Li, M., Chi, P., Deng, L.. 2023-11-29. Activating neutrophils by co-administration of immunogenic recombinant modified vaccinia virus Ankara and granulocyte colony-stimulating factor for the treatment of malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor. https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.11.29.569123

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