2024 Post-doctoral Fellowship Grant

Co-funded by Cal's Angels, Violet Foundation for pediatric brain cancer

Jiasen He, Recipient

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Mentor: Candelaria Gomez-Manzano

Combining Virotherapy and Anti-GD2 CAR T Cells for Diffuse Midline Glioma

Abstract:

Current treatment options for DMG, such as radiation therapy, only extend survival by a few months. In a recent clinical trial, our group treated pediatric DMG patients with Delta-24-RGD (DNX-2401), a modified virus with tumor-selective and destroying ability which improved survival in the majority of our patients. To further enhance the anti-tumor effects of DNX-2401, we generated Delta-24-RGDOX (DNX-2440), that now incorporates a protein (OX40L) to activate the patient's resident immune T cells towards killing cancer cells. Recent work from another clinical trial has reported the role of engineering a separate protein (chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) on immune T cells in enhanced killing of the DMG cells. In this project, we will combine DNX-2440 with engineered CAR T cells and assess the role of this combination therapy in improving survival outcomes for DMG patients. The proposed study will potentially open new horizons for novel combination therapies for children with DMG.