Integrative analysis of structural variations using short-reads and linked-reads yields highly specific and sensitive predictions.
Genetic diseases are driven by aberrations of the human genome. Identification of such aberrations including structural variations (SVs) is key to our understanding. Conventional short-reads whole genome sequencing (cWGS) can identify SVs to base-pair resolution, but utilizes only short-range information and suffers from high false discovery rate (FDR). Linked-reads sequencing (10XWGS) utilizes long-range information by linkage of short-reads originating from the same large DNA molecule. This can mitigate alignment-based artefacts especially in repetitive regions and should enable better prediction of SVs. However, an unbiased evaluation of this technology is not available. In this study, w…
Personalized RNA mutanome vaccines mobilize poly-specific therapeutic immunity against cancer
T cells directed against mutant neo-epitopes drive cancer immunity. However, spontaneous immune recognition of mutations is inefficient. We recently introduced the concept of individualized mutanome vaccines and implemented an RNA-based poly-neo-epitope approach to mobilize immunity against a spectrum of cancer mutations. Here we report the first-in-human application of this concept in melanoma. We set up a process comprising comprehensive identification of individual mutations, computational prediction of neo-epitopes, and design and manufacturing of a vaccine unique for each patient. All patients developed T cell responses against multiple vaccine neo-epitopes at up to high single-digit p…
A non-functional neoepitope specific CD8+ T-cell response induced by tumor derived antigen exposure in vivo
Cancer-associated mutations, mostly single nucleotide variations, can act as neoepitopes and prime targets for effective anti-cancer T-cell immunity. T cells recognizing cancer mutations are critical for the clinical activity of immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) and they are potent vaccine antigens. High frequencies of mutation-specific T cells are rarely spontaneously induced. Hence, therapies that broaden the tumor specific T-cell response are of interest. Here, we analyzed neoepitope-specific CD8+ T-cell responses mounted either spontaneously or after immunotherapy regimens, which induce local tumor inflammation and cell death, in mice bearing tumors of the widely used colon carcinoma cel…
An RNA vaccine drives expansion and efficacy of claudin-CAR-T cells against solid tumors.
A one-two, CAR-T cell punch Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)–T cells have been clinically effective in killing certain hematological malignancies, but achieving long-term patient responses for solid tumors remains a challenge. Reinhard et al. describe a two-part “CARVac” strategy to overcome poor CAR-T cell stimulation and responses in vivo. They introduce the tight junction protein claudin 6 (CLDN6) as a new CAR-T cell target and designed a nanoparticulate RNA vaccine encoding a chimeric receptor directed toward CLDN6. This lipoplex RNA vaccine promotes CLDN6 expression on the surface of dendritic cells, which in turn stimulates and enhances the efficacy of CLDN6-CAR-T cells for improved tu…