Vaccinia viruses (VACV) are a novel class of immune-oncolytic therapeutics and their mechanism of action is based both on their capacity to replicate selectively in cancer cells and to elicit danger signals that can boost anti-tumor immunity. We recently reported that the intratumor expression of MLKL, a necroptosis inducing factor, generates a protective anti-tumor immunity. Here, we combined both approaches to test the use of VACV to deliver MLKL into the tumor. We generated VACV vectors expressing MLKL and evaluated the effects of MLKL on antitumor efficacy. In vitro infection of cancer cells with MLKL-expressing vectors led to cell death with necroptotic hallmarks. In syngeneic mouse tumor models, VACV expressing MLKL induced an outstanding antitumor activity, which was associated with a robust immunity directed against neo-epitopes. In conclusion, delivery of MLKL by VACV vectors boosts the intrinsic anti-tumor properties of these viral vectors by promoting in situ immunogenic cell death of infected cancer cells.

Recently, oncolytic vaccinia viruses (VACVs) have shown their potential to provide for clinically effective cancer treatments. The reason for this clinical usefulness is not only the direct destruction of infected cancer cells but also activation of immune responses directed against tumor antigens. For eliciting a robust antitumor immunity, a dominant T helper 1 (Th1) cell differentiation of the response is preferred, and such polarization can be achieved by activating the Toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3)-interferon regulatory factor 3 (IRF3) signaling pathway. However, current VACVs used as oncolytic viruses to date still encode several immune evasion proteins involved in the inhibition of this signaling pathway. By inactivating genes of selected regulatory virus proteins, we aimed for a candidate virus with increased potency to activate cellular antitumor immunity but at the same time with a fully maintained replicative capacity in cancer cells. The removal of up to three key genes ( C10L , N2L , and C6L ) from VACV did not reduce the strength of viral replication, both in vitro and in vivo , but resulted in the rescue of IRF3 phosphorylation upon infection of cancer cells. In syngeneic mouse tumor models, this activation translated to enhanced cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) responses directed against tumor-associated antigens and neo-epitopes and improved antitumor activity.

AbstractcGAMP-specific nucleases (poxins) are a recently described family of proteins dedicated to obstructing cyclic GMP-AMP synthase signaling (cGAS), an important sensor triggered by cytoplasmic viral replication that activates type I interferon (IFN) production. The B2R gene of vaccinia viruses (VACV) codes for one of these nucleases. Here, we evaluated the effects of inactivating the VACV B2 nuclease in the context of an oncolytic VACV. VACV are widely used as anti-cancer vectors due to their capacity to activate immune responses directed against tumor antigens. We aimed to elicit robust antitumor immunity by preventing viral inactivation of the cGAS/STING/IRF3 pathway after infection of cancer cells. Activation of such a pathway is associated with a dominant T helper 1 (Th1) cell differentiation of the response, which benefits antitumor outcomes. Deletion of the B2R gene resulted in enhanced IRF3 phosphorylation and type I IFN expression after infection of tumor cells, while effective VACV replication remained unimpaired, both in vitro and in vivo. In syngeneic mouse tumor models, the absence of the VACV cGAMP-specific nuclease translated into improved antitumor activity, which was associated with antitumor immunity directed against tumor epitopes.