Immune Memory Drives Effective Cancer Vaccines, Say Mayo Clinic’s Dr Knutson and CellxLife’s Dr von Hofe

In the second segment of an interview with BioPharm International®, Keith L. Knutson, PhD, Professor of Immunology at Mayo Clinic, and Eric von Hofe, PhD, CEO of CellxLife, examine dendritic cell vaccine technology and the role immune memory plays in preventing long-term cancer recurrence.

Dr von Hofe notes that dendritic cell vaccines build on the earlier cancer vaccine approach of injecting tumor antigens to stimulate an immune response. Dendritic cells are the cells that naturally present tumor antigens to the immune system. The vaccine approach extracts these cells from the body, incubates them with high concentrations of tumor antigens outside the body, and reintroduces them to the patient already primed to direct the immune system toward specific target cells, he explains.

How do dendritic cell vaccines generate long-term immune memory against tumor recurrence?

Dr Knutson says dendritic cells allow researchers to engineer immune responses with a precision not previously possible, addressing the complexity of both the immune system and individual tumors. Because different tumor subtypes require different immune responses, dendritic cells provide the ability to design an immune response tailored to an individual patient's specific tumor.

"We want to achieve long-term memory, and we're still looking at best ways and best practices to do that with our vaccine approaches," Dr Knutson emphasizes, adding that a strong memory response allows the immune system to detect low levels of tumor protein and respond rapidly if cancer recurs years later.

Dr von Hofe describes the resulting memory immune cells as continuously "policing" the body, reactivating if targeted antigens reappear. He says periodic boosters may be needed to sustain long-term protection, but the approach represents the foundational goal of cancer immunotherapy.

"Once you mount a successful immune response, that will then, for your lifelong, be there policing," Dr von Hofe says.

Watch segment 1 of their interview.

About the speakers

Keith L. Knutson, PhD, Professor of Immunology, Mayo Clinic

Dr Knutson is a consultant in the Department of Immunology, Mayo Clinic in Florida, with a joint appointment in the Department of Cancer Biology.He serves as the director of the Mayo Clinic in Florida Cell Analysis and Cell Imaging Core.He is also co-director of the Mayo Clinic Enterprise Cancer Center’s Cancer Immunology and Immunotherapy Program and vice chair of the Mayo Clinic Enterprise Research Personnel Committee. Dr. Knutson joined the staff of Mayo Clinic in 2005 andholds the academic rank of Professor of Immunology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science. He is recognized with the distinction of the Andrew A. and Mary S. Sugg Professor of Cancer Research. He received his Bachelor of Science in Microbiology at the University of Washington and earned his PhD in Physiology and Pharmacology from the University of Georgia.

Eric von Hofe, PhD, CEO, CellxLife

Dr Hofe has more than 30 years of experience in managing and overseeing novel biotechnology approaches to cancer immunotherapy and technology development. Prior to becoming CEO of CellxLIfe, he led development efforts at AffyImmune Therapeutics raising over $20 million and advancing a novel CAR T cell therapeutic into the clinic against refractory thyroid cancer. Previously he led the development of an immunotherapeutic vaccine for breast and prostate cancer at Antigen Express, resulting in a collaboration with Merck. Prior to that he held positions at Millennium Pharmaceuticals overseeing the advancement of internal technology development projects and personalized medicine.