AVITAG · Alphaviral Immunotherapy against Glioblastoma
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2016-05-01 → 2018-04-30
- EU contribution
- €185,857
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
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Results in brief
Alphaviral Immunotherapy against Glioblastoma
Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most frequent and most severe type of primary brain tumour, with incidence of 3-4/100 000 persons. GBM is associated with strong immunosuppression, invasiveness and recurrence after therapy. The current standard care for GBM is maximal resection of the tumour combined with radiation therapy and chemotherapy with temozolimide. Despite this intervention, GBMs remain 100% fatal with median survival of only 12 - 15 months. Consequently, there is an urgent need for novel effective therapy. Among the emerging new cancer therapies is oncolytic virotherapy. This therapy is based on use of viruses that selectively replicate in cancer cells. The mode of action consists of viral replication-caused tumour cell destruction (oncolysis) which is accompanied by immune system attack against the infected cells. In the optimal scenario viral infection in the tumour cells would also lead to release factors (Tumour associated antigens, damage-associated molecular patterns, inflammatory cytokines, chemokines etc.) needed to educate the patient’s immune system to recognize and destroy also non-infected cancer cells. This would lead to persistent systemic immunity and complete eradication of otherwise untreatable cancer. In this project, PhD Miika Martikainen and collaborators aimed to develop oncolytic virotherapy against GBM using an alphavirus called Semliki Forest virus (SFV). The project was based on earlier results in Martikainen’s PhD thesis that indicate SFV as a potent oncolytic agent against GBM.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Alphaviral Immunotherapy against GlioblastomaGlioblastomas (GBM) are the most frequent type of primary brain tumours with no treatment or cure available. Despite the current standard care, GBMs remain 100% fatal with median survival of patients for only 12 - 15 months. Thus, there is an urgent need for novel effective therapies.Among the emerging new therapeutic approaches is oncolytic virotherapy with replicative viruses that kill cancer cells. During his PhD studies, the applicant researcher, Miika Martikainen, has engineered novel tumour-targeted replicative alphavirus that shows promising therapeutic response in a syngeneic orthotropic mouse model for human GBM. As the next step, the applicant seeks to join Professor Magnus Essand’s group at the Uppsala University to conduct his postdoctoral research project that aims to development of clinically relevant oncolytic immunovirotherapy against GBM.To achieve this aim, previously unappreciated potency of Alphaviral oncolytic virotherapy is combined with synergistic immunotherapy with dendritic cell vaccination and/or adenoviruses. A detailed analysis of relevant immune responses associated with the therapy efficacy will be conducted to allow clinical translation of the results. The state-of-the-art methods available and the training received during the fellowship at host laboratory and secondments will arm the applicant with the skills and knowledge that allow him to establish a career as independent research scientist in a field that aims to develop novel ways to treat severe forms cancer.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UPPSALA UNIVERSITET · UppsalaCoordinatorSweden
Links
- View on CORDIS
- DOI: 10.3030/707093
- https://web.archive.org/web/20180405065331/https://www.igp.uu.se/research/clinical_immunology/magnus_essand/
Data: CORDIS, © European Union