@article{SonntagHashimotoEyrichetal.2018,
  author    = {Sonntag, Katja and Hashimoto, Hisayoshi and Eyrich, Matthias and Menzel, Moritz and Schubach, Max and D{\"o}cker, Dennis and Battke, Florian and Courage, Carolina and Lambertz, Helmut and Handgretinger, Rupert and Biskup, Saskia and Schilbach, Karin},
  title     = {Immune monitoring and TCR sequencing of CD4 T cells in a long term responsive patient with metastasized pancreatic ductal carcinoma treated with individualized, neoepitope-derived multipeptide vaccines: a case report},
  series = {Journal of Translational Medicine},
  volume    = {16},
  journal   = {Journal of Translational Medicine},
  doi       = {10.1186/s12967-018-1382-1},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-239276},
  year      = {2018},
  abstract  = {Background Cancer vaccines can effectively establish clinically relevant tumor immunity. Novel sequencing approaches rapidly identify the mutational fingerprint of tumors, thus allowing to generate personalized tumor vaccines within a few weeks from diagnosis. Here, we report the case of a 62-year-old patient receiving a four-peptide-vaccine targeting the two sole mutations of his pancreatic tumor, identified via exome sequencing. Methods Vaccination started during chemotherapy in second complete remission and continued monthly thereafter. We tracked IFN-γ+ T cell responses against vaccine peptides in peripheral blood after 12, 17 and 34 vaccinations by analyzing T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoire diversity and epitope-binding regions of peptide-reactive T-cell lines and clones. By restricting analysis to sorted IFN-γ-producing T cells we could assure epitope-specificity, functionality, and TH1 polarization. Results A peptide-specific T-cell response against three of the four vaccine peptides could be detected sequentially. Molecular TCR analysis revealed a broad vaccine-reactive TCR repertoire with clones of discernible specificity. Four identical or convergent TCR sequences could be identified at more than one time-point, indicating timely persistence of vaccine-reactive T cells. One dominant TCR expressing a dual TCRVα chain could be found in three T-cell clones. The observed T-cell responses possibly contributed to clinical outcome: The patient is alive 6 years after initial diagnosis and in complete remission for 4 years now. Conclusions Therapeutic vaccination with a neoantigen-derived four-peptide vaccine resulted in a diverse and long-lasting immune response against these targets which was associated with prolonged clinical remission. These data warrant confirmation in a larger proof-of concept clinical trial.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{SchilbachAlkhaledWelkeretal.2015,
  author    = {Schilbach, Karin and Alkhaled, Mohammed and Welker, Christian and Eckert, Franziska and Blank, Gregor and Ziegler, Hendrik and Sterk, Marco and M{\"u}ller, Friederike and Sonntag, Katja and Wieder, Thomas and Braum{\"u}ller, Heidi and Schmitt, Julia and Eyrich, Matthias and Schleicher, Sabine and Seitz, Christian and Erbacher, Annika and Pichler, Bernd J. and M{\"u}ller, Hartmut and Tighe, Robert and Lim, Annick and Gillies, Stephen D. and Strittmatter, Wolfgang and R{\"o}cken, Martin and Handgretinger, Rupert},
  title     = {Cancer-targeted IL-12 controls human rhabdomyosarcoma by senescence induction and myogenic differentiation},
  series = {OncoImmunology},
  volume    = {4},
  journal   = {OncoImmunology},
  number    = {7},
  doi       = {10.1080/2162402X.2015.1014760},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-154579},
  pages     = {e1014760},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {Stimulating the immune system to attack cancer is a promising approach, even for the control of advanced cancers. Several cytokines that promote interferon-γ-dominated immune responses show antitumor activity, with interleukin 12 (IL-12) being of major importance. Here, we used an antibody-IL-12 fusion protein (NHS-IL12) that binds histones of necrotic cells to treat human sarcoma in humanized mice. Following sarcoma engraftment, NHS-IL12 therapy was combined with either engineered IL-7 (FcIL-7) or IL-2 (IL-2MAB602) for continuous cytokine bioavailability. NHS-IL12 strongly induced innate and adaptive antitumor immunity when combined with IL-7 or IL-2. NHS-IL12 therapy significantly improved survival of sarcoma-bearing mice and caused long-term remissions when combined with IL-2. NHS-IL12 induced pronounced cancer cell senescence, as documented by strong expression of senescence-associated p16\(^{INK4a}\) and nuclear translocation of p-HP1γ, and permanent arrest of cancer cell proliferation. In addition, this cancer immunotherapy initiated the induction of myogenic differentiation, further promoting the hypothesis that efficient antitumor immunity includes mechanisms different from cytotoxicity for efficient cancer control in vivo.},
  language  = {en}
}