A compound to reduce adjuvanted vaccine side effects; an oncolytic virus to enable CAR T cells for solid tumors and more

Limiting the inflammatory side effects of adjuvanted vaccines
A team led by University of Chicago scientists reported in Science Advances that NF-κB modulator SN50 could enable the use of adjuvants to amplify adaptive immune response by limiting inflammatory side effects. In mice given the adjuvant CpG and vaccinated with Sanofi (Euronext:SAN; NASDAQ:SNY) quadrivalent flu vaccine Fluzone QIV, a dengue antigen or an HIV antigen, SN50 reduced levels of systemic proinflammatory cytokines without compromising the vaccines’ immunogenicity or efficacy. 

City of Hope’s oncolytic virus-CAR T combo
In a paper in Science Translational Medicine, City of Hope researchers described an oncolytic virus engineered to express a truncated CD19 that enabled anti-CD19 CAR T cells to reduce tumor sizes in mouse models of colorectal and triple-negative breast cancer. The team led by Anthony Park, a postdoc in the lab of Saul Priceman, also reported that the virus promoted T cell infiltration of solid tumors and the development of antitumor immunity. Priceman, an assistant professor in the department of hematology and hematopoietic cell transplantation, told BioCentury City of Hope plans to test the engineered oncolytic virus alone in solid tumor patients; if successful, evaluation of the virus in sequence with CAR T cells could begin in 2022...