NeoVax
NeoVax is a made-to-order vaccine: a patient's tumour is sequenced, the mutations most likely to be seen by the immune system are turned into peptides, and these are injected to train T cells against that tumour alone. Early trials in melanoma and glioblastoma showed it raises the intended immune response.
Overview
NeoVax is the personalised neoantigen vaccine platform developed at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Broad Institute. Whole-exome and RNA sequencing of the tumour identify somatic mutations, algorithms predict which mutant peptides bind the patient's HLA molecules, and up to 20 long peptides are synthesised and given subcutaneously with poly-ICLC over several weeks.
The first phase 1 trial in high-risk melanoma (Nature, 2017) showed strong CD4 and CD8 responses against the chosen neoantigens and durable freedom from recurrence in most patients, with epitope spreading after later PD-1 blockade. A phase 1 study in newly diagnosed glioblastoma (Nature, 2019) showed neoantigen-specific T cells could be generated and found in the tumour, but only in patients not taking dexamethasone, which blunted the response. The glioblastoma page names it among the personalised vaccine approaches under study.
Up to 20 synthetic long peptides encoding mutations found only in the patient's own tumour, chosen by sequencing and HLA-binding prediction, are injected with the TLR3 agonist poly-ICLC to raise T cells against the tumour's private antigens.
1.NeoVax slips into a pocket on its target.
Trials
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Latest papers
topQuery for this drug: (TITLE:"NeoVax" OR ABSTRACT:"NeoVax" OR TITLE:"Personalised neoantigen peptide vaccine Dana-Farber" OR ABSTRACT:"Personalised neoantigen peptide vaccine Dana-Farber") AND (cancer OR tumor OR tumour OR oncology OR carcinoma OR lymphoma OR leukemia OR leukaemia OR myeloma OR sarcoma OR melanoma OR glioma). Results are unfiltered search hits about NeoVax, not a curated reading list.
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