The Babak Lab shared a post on LinkedIn about a recent article by Adam J. Grippin et al, published in Nature:
“Can COVID Vaccination Boost Cancer Immunotherapy?
New Nature study reveals a surprising link between COVID-19 vaccination and improved cancer immunotherapy outcomes. Researchers found that mRNA vaccines can transiently boost tumor sensitivity to immune checkpoint blockade, even in previously resistant tumors. The effect is driven by spike-specific T cells infiltrating the tumor microenvironment. This opens new possibilities for using vaccines to enhance response to ICB therapy.
Key Focus
A new Nature study reveals that SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination may enhance tumor response to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy, even in previously resistant solid tumors.
Key Insights
- In mouse models, spike-specific CD8+ T cells infiltrated tumors after vaccination, improving anti-PD-1 efficacy.
- Retrospective data from NSCLC and RCC patients show improved progression-free survival (PFS) if ICB was given shortly after COVID vaccination.
- Suggests systemic immune activation by vaccines may transiently reprogram the tumor microenvironment.
Conclusion
COVID mRNA vaccines might act as immune ‘primers’ in ICB-resistant cancers. This opens potential for timing vaccination to boost immunotherapy outcomes.
Image generated using Sora by OpenAI.”
Title: SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines sensitize tumours to immune checkpoint blockade
Authors: Adam J. Grippin, Christiano Marconi, Sage Copling, Nan Li, Chen Braun, Cole Woody, Elliana Young, Priti Gupta, Min Wang, Annette Wu, Seong Dong Jeong, Dhruvkumar Soni, Frances Weidert, Chao Xie, Eden Goldenberg, Andrew Kim, Chong Zhao, Anna DeVries, Paul Castillo, Rishabh Lohray, Michael K. Rooney, Benjamin R. Schrank, Yifan Wang, Yifan Ma, Enoch Chang, Ramez Kouzy, Kyle Dyson, Jordan Jafarnia, Nina Nariman, Gregory Gladish, Jacob New, Ada Argueta, Diana Amaya, Nagheme Thomas, Andria Doty, Joe Chen, Nikhil Copling, Gabriel Alatrash, Julie Simon, Alicia Bea Davies, William Dennis, Richard Liang, Jeff Lewis, Xiong Wei, Waree Rinsurongkawong, Ara A. Vaporciyan, Andrew Johns, D3CODE Team, Jack Lee, Ji-Hyun Lee, Ryan Sun, Padmanee Sharma, Hai Tran, Jianjun Zhang, Don L. Gibbons, Jennifer Wargo, Betty Y. S. Kim, John V. Heymach, Hector R. Mendez-Gomez, Wen Jiang, Elias J. Sayour, Steven H. Lin
Read the Full Article on Nature
Maria (Masha) Babak, Head of The Babak Lab and Assistant Professor at City University of Hong Kong, shared this post, adding:
“Raises interesting questions about timing of immunotherapy and vaccination.”
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