Maartje Wouters, PhD

After initial priming through interaction with dendritic cells (DCs), CD8+ T cells disengage and migrate, but little is known about how cytokine signals are transmitted or received by these cells for differentiation during this migration. Jobin, Seetharama, et al. visualized the dynamics of antigen-specific CD8+ T cells, as well as CD4+ T helper...

Lopez et al. reported on a phase 1 trial assessing the safety and efficacy of the personalized neoantigen vaccine autogene cevumeran combined with atezolizumab in advanced cancers. Treatment was feasible and toxicities were manageable. Treatment induced de novo neoantigen-specific T cell responses that were detectable in blood and tumors. Induced T cells initially had proliferative and early activation signatures, and over time transitioned from early- to late-differentiated effector phenotypes. Some patients had objective responses, during which neoantigen-specific T cells could be observed, which lowered in number upon progressive disease.

While it is known that neoantigen immunoediting plays a role in immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) efficacy, it is unclear how neoantigen recognition by T cells impacts tumor presentation of antigens in response to ICB. Alban and Riaz et al. evaluated…

Aging results in decreased immune system functionality, with age-associated changes to dendritic cells (DCs) limiting their migration and cytokine production. Given that such effects may induce immunotherapy resistance, Zhivaki et al. investigated a…

Despite its successes in some patients, immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) targeting PD-1 is not beneficial in most patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Determining which patients would or would not benefit from this treatment has remained…

One of the reasons immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) may fail in solid tumors like pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) is a lack of T cell infiltration and extensive myeloid inflammation in the tumor microenvironment (TME). Wattenberg et al. aimed…

The mechanism of action of anti-CTLA-4 therapy remains incompletely understood. Hypotheses suggest that either antagonism of CTLA-4:B7 binding or Fc effector-mediated regulatory T cell (Treg) depletion might be responsible for the efficacy of the…

The researchers made use of samples and information from the registration-driven Impower150 trial, which led to the approval of a chemoimmunotherapy combination (including ICB with anti-PD-L1) in first-line non-small cell lung cancer. Baseline and…

While it is known that both the innate and adaptive arms of the immune system follow circadian rhythms, the mechanisms behind these rhythms and their effects on vaccination treatment efficacy, particularly in the cancer setting, remain largely…

The tumor-associated antigen mesothelin (MSLN) is expressed by mesothelioma and other types of cancer. LMB-100 is an immunotoxin consisting of a Fab recognizing human MSLN that is linked to a toxin (Pseudomonas exotoxin A), which induces direct tumor…

Since cytolytic T cells are critical to cancer immunotherapy, therapeutic cancer vaccines, which can induce such T cells, can be an important component of immunotherapy. However, current vaccine approaches to improve the magnitude of the immune…

The oncogene KRAS is mutated in many cancer types, with the most common mutations being G12D, G12V, and G12C. As an intracellular protein, it is inaccessible to antibody-based therapy strategies. However, T cell receptors can detect the mutated…

Despite aggressive treatment involving debulking surgery and chemoradiotherapy, glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) remains incurable. A major culprit for GBM recurrence and therapy resistance are self-renewing glioma stem cells (GSCs) that are left behind…

Given that checkpoint inhibition therapies have limited efficacy in tumors poorly infiltrated with T cells (immune cold tumors), combining these therapies with those attempting to increase antitumor T cell responses, such as vaccines, is warranted.…

Tumor neoantigen-specific T cells generated by vaccines can synergize with immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) for antitumor efficacy, but not much is known about the dynamics of these cells during therapy. Therefore, Liu, Chen, and Zhang et al.…

The researchers made use of various cold tumor models, including the TC-1 transplantable lung, 4T1 transplantable triple-negative breast cancer, and the carcinogen urethane-induced lung cancer murine models, with a primary focus on the TC-1 model.…

A group of vaccines that work in a similar way, based on a viral vector for the delivery of the vaccine information, are those developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford (also named Covishield and Vaxzevria), Johnson and Johnson (J&J,…

The first two COVID-19 vaccines that finished clinical trials and were cleared for use in multiple countries were the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines. Both these vaccines use mRNA. What is mRNA? The m in mRNA stands for messenger, and RNA is an…

We spoke with Silvia Rattigan (Torres), PhD, who works as Associate Director of Clinical Quality Assurance at MSD in Dublin, Ireland. We asked her about her job, career, education, and any advice she might have for anyone looking for a similar…

Even though the importance of forming long-lived memory CD8+ T cells is widely acknowledged, the origin of this T cell subset remains largely unknown. Johnnidis and Muroyama et al. used a well established viral infection model to phenotype and…