The innovation is a canine immunotheraputic combination vaccine consisting of a monoclonal antibody and CpG that is injected into the cancer tumor microenvironment. The CpG upregulates a check point molcule on the CD4+ T cells. This up regulation is mostly a among effector CD4+ T cells and outnumbered regulatory T cells (T Regs). The monoclonal antibody dampens the Treg response. In the tumor micro-environment this releases the brakes; with the CD4+ T cells killing the tumor while the CD8+ T cells kill distant tumors. T effector activation, T reg cell damping along with NK cell activation is the result of molcule signaling.
Does it Work?
Maybe. During a one-year preclinical, dose limiting trial, seven dogs with five different cancers were treated, three survived. The dogs that survived had oral melanoma, and mast cell cancer and mammary adenocarcinoma (breast cancer). The dog with the mammary adenocarcinoma was diagnosed 1/7/2019 with a Grade 2 cancer with a mitotic index of 10 and surgically treated. One and a half years later, the dog relapsed and an ulcerous tumor was treated with the combination vaccine, anti-OX40 and CpG. As of 1 October 2021, the dog is still alive, 429 days after anti-OX40 and CpG treatment; 1000 days after the first diagnoses.
This vaccine is unique since the dog must have cancer for the vaccine to be effective. It is an “out of the box” solution to a difficult problem since the vaccine can be applied to many cancers without knowledge of the unique tumor antigens making this a tumor agnostic cancer vaccination. If successful, the innovation would be a curative and long-lasting vaccine for treating cancer in dogs.
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