Redirecting cytomegalovirus immunity against pancreas cancer for immunotherapy.

ABSTRACT: Immunotherapy shows limited success in pancreatic cancer, largely due to a low mutational burden and immunosuppressive microenvironment. Here we hypothesized that pre-existing antiviral immunity can be redirected to control pancreatic tumors. Cytomegalovirus (CMV, a β-herpesvirus) was chosen, as the majority of the population is infected and it induces an extremely large/broad memory T cell response. Mice latently infected with murine CMV (MCMV) were orthotopically implanted with pancreatic cancer cells and treated with systemic injections of MCMV T-cell epitopes. The therapy promoted preferential accumulation of MCMV-specific T cells within pancreatic tumors, delaying tumor growth and increasing survival. Immunophenotyping and scRNAseq analyses showed these T cells were highly activated a

SUBMITTER: Marrocco R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12139863 | biostudies-literature | 2025 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature