# Glioblastoma radioimmunotherapy

> **NIH NIH R21** · VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $232,875

## Abstract

Radioimmunotherapy for glioblastoma
Abstract:
Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most common and lethal primary brain tumor in adults. Current standard-
of-care GBM treatment involving surgery and chemoradiation has very limited efficacy. Immunotherapy has been
enthusiastically pursued for GBM treatment, but overall, GBM has thus far responded poorly to current
immunotherapies, such as cancer therapeutic vaccines and immune checkpoint blockade (ICB). The underlying
causes largely involve both local (in the tumor microenvironment) and systemic immunosuppression,
heterogeneous and instable tumor cell subpopulations, and central immune tolerance against GBM-associated
vaccines. Neoantigens, which are present solely in tumor cells but not in healthy cells, are attractive vaccine
candidates due to their lack of central immune tolerance. Indeed, personalized neoantigen vaccines effectively
treated some GBM patients. However, GBM generally has very low neoantigen loads, and the vast majority of
neoantigens are poorly immunogenic, both of which hinder the wide clinic application of these vaccines.
Combination therapy has enormous potential to address these challenges. Here, we propose to develop a novel
radioimmunotherapy for GBM by combining fractionated conformal radiation, neoantigen nanovaccines, and ICB
to promote the overall therapy response and prolong survival in a pre-clinical orthotopic GBM model. We will test
this radioimmunotherapy in an orthotopic GBM model in syngeneic mice. First, fractionated conformal radiation
could potently and precisely kill tumor cells and may also abolish local and systemic immunosuppression.
Second, a GBM neoantigen nanovaccine will be developed to promote vaccine delivery into lymphoid tissues
and antigen-presenting cells (APCs), thereby potentiating immunogenicity of the neoantigen and eliciting potent
and durable GBM-specific T cell responses. Third, ICB can further promote anti-GBM immunity. To this end, we
demonstrated before the potent therapeutic efficacy of fractionated conformal radiation in an orthotopic GBM
mouse model. Moreover, we developed a platform of clinically promising nanovaccines that are formed in vivo
from host albumin and albumin-binding vaccines (AlbiVax). AlbiVax are widely applicable and biocompatible.
AlbiVax (1) delivered subunit vaccines to lymph nodes ~100-fold more efficiently than a clinic benchmark, (2)
efficiently co-delivered molecular adjuvant and antigens to APCs, (3) enhanced antigen presentation, (4) elicited
potent and durable antigen-specific immune responses, and (5) exerted great therapeutic efficacy either alone
or together with ICB in multiple murine tumor models. Our albumin-binding moiety was validated in human to
have efficient lymph node retention and an excellent safety profile. We have a team of investigators with
complementary expertise for this study: Dr. Zhu for cancer nanovaccine and immunotherapy; Dr. Valerie for
GBM radiotherapy; Dr. Bos for tumor immunolo...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10057915
- **Project number:** 1R21NS114455-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** KRISTOFFER Carl VALERIE
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $232,875
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-08-15 → 2022-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10057915

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10057915, Glioblastoma radioimmunotherapy (1R21NS114455-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10057915. Licensed CC0.

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