Gene expression data of glioblastoma patients from GAPVAC trial (Glioma Actively Personalized Vaccine Consortium)

Patients with glioblastoma (GB) so far do not sufficiently benefit from recent breakthroughs with checkpoint inhibitors (CPI), for which high mutational load and responses to neo-epitopes are regarded essential. GB tumours show limited intra-tumoral immune cell infiltration and carry 30-50 non-synonymous mutations only. Exploitation of the full repertoire of tumour antigens - non-mutated and neo-epitopes – may offer more effective immunotherapies, especially for tumours with low mutational load. In the first-in-human trial GAPVAC-101, the Glioma Actively Personalized Vaccine Consortium (GAPVAC) integrated both tracks highly individualized into standard treatment to optimally exploit the limited target space for patients with newly diagnosed GB. Fifteen HLA-A*02:01+ or -A*24:02+ patients were treated with a warehouse-based vaccine (APVAC1) targeting non-mutated antigens followed by APVAC2, targeting preferentially neo-epitopes. Personalization was based on mutations, transcriptome, and immunopeptidome of the individual tumours. The GAPVAC approach was feasible and vaccinations adjuvanted by poly-ICLC and GM-CSF displayed favourable safety and excellent immunogenicity: Non-mutated APVAC1 antigens induced sustained central memory CD8+ T-cell responses. APVAC2 induced predominantly TH1 CD4+ T-cell responses against predicted neo-epitopes. www.GAPVAC.eu mRNA of 16 patients were analyzed and normalized against a normal kidney sample used as reference contributor: GAPVAC (Glioma Actively Personalized Vaccine Consortium)