Developing a multimodal therapy for glioblastoma using oncolytic virus delivering CD19 and EGFRvIII antigens and...

Glioblastoma is the most aggressive primary brain tumor with no cure, largely because of tumor heterogeneity and immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy is highly effective in blood cancers but exhibits limited efficacy in glioblastoma due to heterogeneous tumor antigen expression, antigen loss and poor persistence of tumor-targeting immune cells in glioblastoma. Here we show a multimodal immunotherapy strategy that integrates engineered immune cells with oncolytic viruses to overcome these barriers. We have developed bispecific CAR-T and CAR-NK cells in combination with oncolytic virus that delivers two tumor antigens to glioblastoma cells for effective CAR targeting. Moreover, oncolytic virus armed with membrane-bound interleukin-15 and interleukin-21 enhances immune cell expansion/persistence and cytotoxic activity. This combined approach improves anti-tumor efficacy in vitro and in vivo by limiting immune escape and enhancing anti-tumor immunity. Together, these findings establish a promising platform for multimodal immunotherapy targeting glioblastoma and other solid tumors.