An oncolytic virus delivering tumor-irrelevant bystander T cell epitopes induces anti-tumor immunity and potentiates cancer immunotherapy.

ABSTRACT: Tumor-specific T cells are crucial in anti-tumor immunity and act as targets for cancer immunotherapies. However, these cells are numerically scarce and functionally exhausted in the tumor microenvironment (TME), leading to inefficacious immunotherapies in most patients with cancer. By contrast, emerging evidence suggested that tumor-irrelevant bystander T (T_BYS) cells are abundant and preserve functional memory properties in the TME. To leverage T_BYS cells in the TME to eliminate tumor cells, we engineered oncolytic virus (OV) encoding T_BYS epitopes (OV-BYTE) to redirect the antigen specificity of tumor cells to pre-existing T_BYS cells, leading to effective tumor inhibition in multiple preclinical models. Mechanistically, OV-BYTE induced epitope

SUBMITTER: Chen X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11286533 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature