Trivax (AV0113)

In pre-immune mice, these cells have a naïve phenotype in both strains, and they respond similarly for the first several days after in vivo stimulation with Trp2 peptide alone or in combination with adjuvants (TriVax)...As a population, WT Trp2-specific CD8+ T cells exhibit covert anergy: despite a naïve appearance at steady state and initial acquisition of activation markers after stimulation, these self-specific cells are unable to expand productively or to efficiently mediate functional anti-melanocyte activity. These findings have implications for recently-described non-deletional CD8+ T cell tolerance in humans.

Antigenic peptide-loaded T cells transfected with retrovirus encoding costimulatory ligands CD70, CD80, OX40L, or 4-1BBL were assessed for antigen-specific CD8 T-cell responses and evaluated antitumor effects along with immunization of a mixture of synthetic peptides, poly-IC and anti-CD40 antibodies (TriVax)...Moreover, CD70-T vaccination resulted in higher expansion and migration of adoptively transferred T cells into tumor sites and elicits enhanced therapeutic effects with peptide-based booster immunization. These results imply that T cells endowed with CD70 enable the design of effective vaccination strategies against solid cancer, which may overcome current limitations of DC-based vaccines.