Abstract CT054: The development of a personalized autologous clonal neoantigen T cell therapy for the treatment of solid cancer using the VELOSTM manufacturing platform generates highly potent and reactive CD8+ and CD4+ T cells for clinical use
Authors: Fraser Henrieta , Pike Rebecca , Thirkell Sarah , Arshad Asiya , Jide-Banwo Sam , Bartley Hollie , Rologi Evi , Pruchniak Michal , Patel Shreenal , Mootien Jennine , Robertson Jane , Craig Andrew , Salm Max , Newton Katy , Goodsell Luke , Chan Fong , Wilson Gareth , Frenk Stephen , Ali Iraj , Peggs Karl , Lowdell Mark W. , Del Rosio Lyra , Hayes Andrew , Turajlic Samra , Islam Farah , Lawrence David , Jamal-Hanjani Mariam , Forster Martin D. , Samuel Edward 
Published: September 2020

Background: Clonal neoantigens are formed early in cancer evolution and have been identified as a subset of patient specific mutations that are associated with improved clinical benefit and represent great promise as targets for the next generation of T cell therapies. Developing T cell therapies that target multiple clonal neoantigens represents a unique personalized approach to treating solid cancer, as they are present on all cancer cells, minimizing the risk of tumour escape, and absent from healthy tissue, potentially eliminating off-target toxicities. Access to sequencing data from over 600 NSCLC patients enrolled in the UK TRACERx study has enabled the development of the Achilles PELEUSTM bioinformatic platform. By opening an ethically approved tissue collection study NCT03517917, enabling access to matched tumour and blood samples from patients with selected cancers, our clonal neoantigen reactive T cell (cNeT) manufacturing process and supply chain has been validated for use in clinical trials.

Methods: Matched tumor and blood samples were procured at the time of routine surgery from ten patients (eight with newly diagnosed stage I-III NSCLC and two with metastatic melanoma) for at-scale GMP runs. Briefly, TIL were isolated from tumor fragments and immature dendritic cells (DCs) generated from whole blood, prior to cryopreservation as intermediate products. Patient-specific clonal neoantigens were predicted using our proprietary PELEUSTM bioinformatic platform, enabling the manufacture of synthetic peptide masterpools to be used for the enrichment of cNeT in the VELOSTM manufacturing process. Co-culture of pre-expanded TIL and patient DCs loaded with clonal neoantigen peptides drives the selective expansion of cNeT, eliminating the requirement for high non-physiological levels of IL-2.

Results: Here we present the successful scaled GMP production of cNeT from both primary and metastatic tumors using the VELOSTM manufacturing process in ten patients. All final products met QC release criteria and were composed of both CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. Extensive characterization of T cell responses showed cNeT exhibited functional responses determined by cytokine secretion following re-challenge, and specificity in response to clonal neoantigen peptides. Peptide deconvolution of masterpools identified multiple single T cell clone reactivities to clonal neoantigens in the final product.

Conclusions: The VELOSTM process incorporating the PELEUSTM bioinformatic platform for prediction of clonal neoantigens is a novel platform for generating personalized T cell products directed at multiple cancer clonal neoantigen targets and has the potential to be utilized across a variety of solid tumors. This study demonstrates the feasibility of generating cNeT for the treatment of both advanced NSCLC and recurrent or metastatic melanoma and supported the successful regulatory approval in two first-in-human studies (NCT04032847 and NCT03997474) which opened in the UK in 2019.

Citation Format: Henrieta Fraser, Rebecca Pike, Sarah Thirkell, Asiya Arshad, Sam Jide-Banwo, Hollie Bartley, Evi Rologi, Michal Pruchniak, Shreenal Patel, Jennine Mootien, Jane Robertson, Andrew Craig, Max Salm, Katy Newton, Luke Goodsell, Fong Chan, Gareth Wilson, Stephen Frenk, Iraj Ali, Karl Peggs, Mark W. Lowdell, Lyra Del Rosio, Andrew Hayes, Samra Turajlic, Farah Islam, David Lawrence, Mariam Jamal-Hanjani, Martin D. Forster, Edward Samuel. The development of a personalized autologous clonal neoantigen T cell therapy for the treatment of solid cancer using the VELOSTM manufacturing platform generates highly potent and reactive CD8+ and CD4+ T cells for clinical use [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research 2020; 2020 Apr 27-28 and Jun 22-24. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(16 Suppl):Abstract nr CT054.