Imaging activated T cells predicts response to cancer vaccines

IS Alam, AT Mayer, I Sagiv-Barfi… - The Journal of …, 2018 - Am Soc Clin Investig
IS Alam, AT Mayer, I Sagiv-Barfi, K Wang, O Vermesh, DK Czerwinski, EM Johnson
The Journal of clinical investigation, 2018Am Soc Clin Investig
In situ cancer vaccines are under active clinical investigation, given their reported ability to
eradicate both local and disseminated malignancies. Intratumoral vaccine administration is
thought to activate a T cell–mediated immune response, which begins in the treated tumor
and cascades systemically. In this study, we describe a PET tracer (64Cu-DOTA-AbOX40)
that enabled noninvasive and longitudinal imaging of OX40, a cell-surface marker of T cell
activation. We report the spatiotemporal dynamics of T cell activation following in situ …
In situ cancer vaccines are under active clinical investigation, given their reported ability to eradicate both local and disseminated malignancies. Intratumoral vaccine administration is thought to activate a T cell–mediated immune response, which begins in the treated tumor and cascades systemically. In this study, we describe a PET tracer (64Cu-DOTA-AbOX40) that enabled noninvasive and longitudinal imaging of OX40, a cell-surface marker of T cell activation. We report the spatiotemporal dynamics of T cell activation following in situ vaccination with CpG oligodeoxynucleotide in a dual tumor–bearing mouse model. We demonstrate that OX40 imaging was able to predict tumor responses on day 9 after treatment on the basis of tumor tracer uptake on day 2, with greater accuracy than both anatomical and blood-based measurements. These studies provide key insights into global T cell activation following local CpG treatment and indicate that 64Cu-DOTA-AbOX40 is a promising candidate for monitoring clinical cancer immunotherapy strategies.
The Journal of Clinical Investigation