# Lymph node-targeted multistage chemoimmunotherapy for lymphoma

> **NIH NIH R01** · GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY · 2022 · $82,825

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Follicular lymphoma (FL) arises from B lymphocytes and accounts for ~25% of non-Hodgkin’s
lymphoma cases. With no existing curative treatments and only ~2.6% of cases resolving, FL is
presently considered an incurable disease. New therapeutic approaches to therapeutically treat FL are
thus critically needed. Contributing to the lack of efficacious therapies is the fact that both primary and
secondary FL cases can arise in skin. Dermal lesions appear to exhibit unique immune resistance
mechanisms making them a challenging lymphoma presentation to treat. Studies on
immunotherapeutic response by dermal FL lesions are limited however by existing FL models. It is well
accepted that the immune microenvironments in which most FL tumors arise and disseminate to –
lymphoid tissues – are vastly different from the skin. A major gap in the field’s ability to develop new
immunotherapies effective against skin FL is the gap in appropriate tumor models to test
immunotherapies in the context their skin presentation. This project seeks to overcome this hurdle by
designing a cell matrix vehicle that induces reliable and consistent tumor formation, as well as
programmable immune infiltration for enhanced consistency and relevance to human disease to test
immunotherapeutic efficacy against skin FL. The parent grant will utilize nanoparticle and
bioconjugation technologies that when used together deliver molecular drugs to within lymph nodes to
improve their therapeutic bioactivity. The proposed work under this supplement seeks to enable the
evaluation of how abscopal effects elicited by the lymph node-targeted nanoformulation on lymphoma
lesions that form in skin are altered by the local immune microenvironment of the skin tumor by
engineering a matrix vehicle scaffold that enables consistent skin tumor formation. The goals of this
proposal will be accomplished in a stepwise fashion. First, we will analyze effects of matrix vehicle
composition on the formation rate, latency, and immune microenvironments of skin tumors formed from
malignant lymphocytes from the Bcl6-EZH2 lymphoma model. Second, we will evaluate how lymph
node- versus non-targeted chemoimmunotherapy control of skin lymphomas varies by the local
immune microenvironment. Successful outcomes in this work will have broad significance and impact
by establishing both a model system for immunotherapy testing relevant to human lymphoma as well
as determining the effects of lymph node targeted therapies on eliciting robust abscopal effects against
skin tumors.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10532591
- **Project number:** 3R01CA247484-03S1
- **Recipient organization:** GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
- **Principal Investigator:** M.G. Finn
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $82,825
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2020-04-01 → 2023-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10532591

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10532591, Lymph node-targeted multistage chemoimmunotherapy for lymphoma (3R01CA247484-03S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10532591. Licensed CC0.

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