Intratumoral plasmid IL-12 expands CD8+ T cells and induces a CXCR3 signature in triple-negative breast tumors that sensitizes patient to anti-PD-1 therapy

We show that plasmid IL-12 injected intratumorally followed by co-localized electroporation induces a CXCR3 gene signature with enhanced antigen presentation, expansion, and licensing of T cells systemically. We highlight a patient that was previously non-responsive to atezolizumab and nab-paclitaxel, who demonstrated significant clinical response to nivolumab following TAVOTM therapy. CD45+ cells were sorted from treated murine TNBC tumors following treatment with control or IL-12 plasmid. Cells from 3 mice were pooled from each treatment and scRNAseq was performed. Gene expression and TCR libraries were created using 10x Genomics Chromium Single Cell 5’ Library Construction Kit (v1.1).