The researchers are also exploring the potential of their approach to treat other challenging cancers, including triple-negative breast cancer, for which Benedict and Hurtado de Mendoza recently received a Curebound Discovery Award. In order to bring this therapy one step closer to the clinic, they are now working with humanized mouse models using a patient’s tumor and blood to provide CMV immunity. They are also characterizing a pool of human CMV peptides discovered by the Benedict and Sette labs at LJI, making it possible to find the best match for each patient based on an individual’s genetics.
“This approach has the potential to be tumor-agnostic, meaning it could be effective against a range of cancer types, including breast cancer, lung cancer, and others,” said. Hurtado de Mendoza. “We’re excited to explore its potential in humanized mouse models to bring it one step closer to clinical trials.”
Link to the full study.
Additional coauthors on the study include: Rithika Medari, Philip Salu, Alexei Martsinkovskiy, Siming Sun, Kevin Gulay, Malak Jaljuli, Evangeline Mose, Andrew Lowy at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center and Eduardo Lucero-Meza, Catarina Maia and Simon Brunel at the La Jolla Institute.
The study was funded, in part, by grants from Foundation for a Better World and the National Institutes of Health (R21CA286198, AI139749, AI101423)
Disclosures: There is a patent application related to this work.
