Vault Nanoparticle Immunotherapy for Lung Cancer
Abstract
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in the United States, and there is an urgent need for development of new therapeutic strategies for this devastating disease. This proposal addresses the Fiscal Year 2017 Lung Cancer Research Program (LCRP) Area of Emphasis to “Identify innovative strategies for prevention and treatment of early and/or localized lung cancer.” Our group has had a long-term interest in developing strategies that activate the human immune system to attack lung cancer. Based on our extensive preclinical studies, we developed and completed a Phase I clinical trial assessing a cell-based therapy to treat patients with advanced stage lung cancer. Due to the mechanism of action, this therapy should also be effective in treating other solid tumors, such as renal and bladder cancer, head and neck cancer, and melanoma. This therapy required engineering a patient’s own immune cells to release an immune activating agent (called CCL21). While the clinical trial showed promising results, the cell-based approach required a specialized laboratory and was cumbersome, expensive, and time-consuming. We have now developed a human protein biocapsule called a “vault” to deliver the same immune activator without the need to engineer human cells. This vault therapy has the potential to serve as an off-the-shelf reagent and thus be widely available, simple to administer, and inexpensive compared to cell-based therapy. This work will generate important data to be used to develop an application to the Food and Drug Administration for a clinical trial to establish the safety of this therapy and, if successful, will lead to an effective treatment for lung cancer. Once the results from this study are evaluated, we will be ready to begin our application for clinical testing. Patients could see the benefit from this therapy within 3 years. According to the Lung Cancer Alliance, “Lung cancer is an urgent priority among Veterans. Not only is the incidence higher, but the survival is lower than in civilian populations.” Overall, the toll of lung cancer deaths in the United States exceeds that of the next four major cancers combined. According to a study looking back on 33 years of cause of death data for people born between 1920 and 1939, the mortality rate for lung cancer among Veterans has been nearly twice that of civilians. Two million World War II and Korean War Veterans died an average of 11.1 years sooner than their civilian counterparts, making the toll of premature deaths in terms of “years of life lost” greater than that of all combat casualties from both wars. A 1987 study of the death records of 52,000 Veterans of that era showed that Marine ground troops who served in Vietnam died of lung cancer at a 58% higher rate than Veterans who did not serve there.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Oct 29, 2018
- Source ID
- W81XWH1810156
Entities
People
- Leonard Rome
Organizations
- United States Army
- University of California, Los Angeles