Combined vaccination and immunostimulatory antibodies provides durable cure of murine melanoma and induces transcriptional changes associated with positive outcome in human melanoma patients

We have developed a recombinant adenovirus vaccine encoding dopachrome tautomerase (rHuAd5-hDCT) that produces robust DCT-specific immunity, but only provides modest suppression of murine melanoma. In the current study, an agonist antibody against 4-1BB was shown to enhance rHuAd5-hDCT efficacy and evoke tumor regression, but most tumors ultimately relapsed. The vaccine triggered upregulation of the immune inhibitory PD-1 signaling pathway and …