Listeria monocytogenes personalized cancer vaccines drive therapeutic immune responses to cancer derived neoantigens

Background Recent advances in the field of cancer immunotherapy have identified CD8+ T cell responses against tumor-specific mutations as a key driver of tumor regression and overall survival. ADXS-NEO is a personalized Listeria monocytogenes (Lm)-based immunotherapy designed to target a patient’s mutation-derived tumor-specific neoantigens. The objective of this study is to demonstrate the feasibility of using the ADXS-NEO platform to target tumor-specific point mutations and control tumor growth by generating neoantigen-specific T cell responses using a pre-clinical mouse tumor model. Methods Whole-exome sequencing of the MC38 mouse tumor cell line identified 2870 unique non-synonymous mutations. The netMHCcons algorithm was used to predict 137 potential neoantigens. We validated 20 immunogenic neoantigens either by peptide immunization followed by ELISPOT or by the presence of CD8+ T cells recognizing the neoantigen peptide following checkpoint inhibitor treatment. Two ADXS-NEO vectors were constructed; Lm20, targeting 20 validated immunogenic neoantigens, and Lm19, targeting most of the non-validated NSMs. Results Both Lm19 & Lm20 significantly slowed tumor growth in C57BL/6 mice compared to control. An accumulation of ADXS-NEO-specific TILs was observed in tumor bearing mice treated with either Lm19 or Lm20. Examination of the tumor microenvironment in Lm19 or Lm20 treated mice revealed a decrease in the frequency and absolute number of Tregs, TAMs, MDSCs, and PD1high exhausted CD8+ T cells as well as an increase in the frequency and absolute number of effector CD8+ T cells, relative to control. Conclusion ADXS-NEO is a potent immunotherapy capable of driving immune responses against tumor-specific mutations and leading to tumor control in mice.