autologous dendritic cell vaccine (University of Louisville)

This autologous dendritic cell vaccine is a biologic immunotherapy developed by the University of Louisville for the treatment of pediatric patients with relapsed or refractory high-grade gliomas, medulloblastomas, and central nervous system primitive neuroectodermal tumors (CNS PNETs). The vaccine is produced by harvesting a patient's own dendritic cells and pulsing them with peptides from specific tumor-associated antigens, namely NY-ESO-1, MAGE-A1, and MAGE-A3. These antigens are often expressed in pediatric brain tumors but are typically absent in normal tissues. The vaccine is designed to be administered in a combination regimen with decitabine, a hypomethylating agent used to upregulate antigen expression on tumor cells, and Hiltonol (poly-ICLC), a toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3) agonist that serves as an immune adjuvant to enhance the activation and recruitment of T-cells. Clinical development was explored in a Phase I/II trial (NCT02332889), which was ultimately terminated.

Other names

Vaccine (autologous dendritic cells)NY-ESO-1/MAGE-A1/MAGE-A3-targeted dendritic cell vaccine