Department of Neurosurgery Professor M. R. Chambers, DVM, MD, together with Associate Professor of Microbiology, Jeremy Foote, DVM, PhD, has published, “Evaluation of immunologic parameters in canine glioma patients treated with an oncolytic herpes virus” in the Journal of Translational Genetics and Genomics.
According to the National Cancer Institute, roughly 13,000 Americans are diagnosed with glioblastoma each year, and currently, the five-year survival rate sits at about 5 percent. UAB has long been a research hub for fighting glioblastoma.
Last year, UAB was awarded a $30 million National Institutes of Health grant, alongside City of Hope, to develop new or improved treatments for patients with glioblastoma.
Researchers in the Department of Neurosurgery previously identified a potential new pathway for treating radiation-resistant glioblastoma with a modified herpes virus, known as G207, shown to be well tolerated and to display early signs of clinical effectiveness in pediatric patients with gliomas, both when the virus was administered alone and in combination with radiation.
For 20 years, Chambers has brought a unique experience to the team of experts at UAB dedicated to glioma research and treatment. With her veterinary background, she developed a brain tumor therapy consortium of veterinary and medical scientists, researchers, and physicians.
Chambers has used the partnership and her expertise toward the CANINE clinical trial, funded by a five-year, $2.6 million grant from the National Cancer Institute’s Center for Cancer Research as part of the Cancer Moonshot Initiative with the express goal of treating pet dogs with naturally occurring brain tumors. Because of the similarities between human and canine gliomas, treatments are also similar.
The authors have recently published interim findings. Molecular characterization of the tumor microenvironment in canine glioma patients before and after treatment with M032, an oncolytic herpes simplex virus that expresses human IL-12, reveals evidence of immune modulation by the virus.
CANINE is the first-ever canine combination immunotherapy trial using an oncolytic virus in combination with a checkpoint inhibitor. Also in a first, there are ongoing clinical trials using oncolytic virus treatment of brain tumors in adult patients at the UAB Heersink School of Medicine, pediatric patients at Children’s Hospital of Alabama, and pet dogs at the many veterinary colleges in the CANINE consortium. With concurrent trials, investigators are able to see results in real-time for translation of findings from pets to people and vice versa.
All authors include:
- R. Chambers
- B. Foote
- T. Bentley
- Botta
- K. Crossman
- L. Della Manna
- Estevez-Ordonez
- W. Koehler
- P. Langford
- A. Miller
- M. Markert
- Olivier
- B. Omar
- R. Platt
- R. Rissi
- Shores
- C. Sorjonen
- S. Yang
- Yanke
- Y. Gillespie
To read the entire study and its methods, click here.