TS-000973 — A recombinant oncolytic virus encoding either an adenosine deaminase or heterologous proteins can be used in treatment of a variety of diseases, as the primary purpose of these are to maintain and develop the immune system. A team of researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital have found a method that can address the delivery of adenosine deaminase into cancer cells, immune cells and the tumor microenvironment to aid in treatment for any disease or condition associated with adenosine or other associated markers.

TS-000972 — Natural Killer (NK) cells express a range of receptors to activate or inhibit certain cellular behavior to kill cancer cells. When an NK cell is deficient or dysfunctional, the efficiency of the NK cells is severely limited. VISTA is a protein sequence that activates T cells and acts as a moderator for the immune system. It has low-to-moderate expression but has been the target of study by a team of researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital led by Dr. Dean Lee. By removing VISTA in expanded NK cells, the inhibitory signal will be eliminated and thus resulting in an enhanced ability of NK cells to target cancers and overcome the immune-suppressive signals for improved cancer immunotherapy.

TS-000854 — Dr. Kevin Cassady and his team have identified an amino acid epitope encoded from Syndecan 4 (SDC4) that binds to a receptor protein on immunosuppressive myeloid and dendric cells called GPNMB. This group has developed a series of fusion proteins including FcGamma (Fcγ) fusions to encode the binding GPNMB-interacting domain, and shared antigens containing epitope tags. They have incorporated the fusion into virus expressed antigens to target myeloid cells in the tumor microenvironment in order to change their functional activity and enhance uptake and processing of antigens. Because SDC4 and GPNMB act as co-inhibitory molecules, they anticipate that fusion proteins will disrupt this interaction, which will enhance T cell activity and could be used as an anti-cancer immunotherapy.

TS-000556 — Oncolytic viruses (OVs) target cancer cells, killing them from the inside. As the contaminated cancer cells die, the biproducts develop additional infectious components that continue to destroy the tumor. Dr. Kevin Cassady and his team have found that using OV-based “shared” antigen expression allows the immune system to recognize these antigens and improves the capacity of the immune system to fight tumor activity. Shared antigen expression includes proteins that are overexpressed by many tumors. They have been able to construct additional OVs that improve the immune targeting glioma and its associated antigen, IL13Ra2. This group is simultaneously investigating other ways enhance the anti-glioma activity by combining OVs with Chimeric Antigen Receptor-targeted T cells directed against IL13Ra2. In pre-clinical trials, this combination has produced improved anti-tumor activity with lower doses and safe to the patient.