The present invention is directed stromal cell derived factor-1 peptides that have been mutated to make them resistant to digestion by the proteases dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPPIV) and matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) but which maintain the ability of native SDF-I to attract T cells. The mutants may be attached to membranes formed by self-assembling peptides and then implanted at sites of tissue damage to help promote repair.

A C—C chemokine receptor 3 (CCR3) peptide analog that exhibits biased antagonism by binding to and inhibiting ligand-mediated signaling and chemotaxis while promoting the internalization and degradation of CCR3 is provided as is a method of using the peptide analog to treat, prevent, or ameliorate one or more symptoms of an eosinophil- or CCR3-mediated disease or condition.

Provided are delivery immunostimulatory bacteria that have enhanced colonization of tumors, the tumor microenvironment and/or tumor-resident immune cells, and enhanced anti-tumor activity. The immunostimulatory bacteria are modified by deletion of genes encoding the flagella or modification of the genes so that functional flagella are not produced, and/or are modified by deletion of pagP or modification of pagP to produce inactive PagP product. As a result, the immunostimulatory bacteria are flagellin.sup.− and/or pagP.sup.−. The immunostimulatory bacteria optionally have additional genomic modifications so that the bacteria are adenosine or purine auxotrophs. The bacteria optionally are one or more of asd.sup.−, purI.sup.− and msbB.sup.−. The immunostimulatory bacteria, such as Salmonella species, are modified to encode immunostimulatory proteins that confer anti-tumor activity in the tumor microenvironment, and/or are modified so that the bacteria preferentially infect immune cells in the tumor microenvironment or tumor-resident immune cells and/or induce less cell death in immune cells than in other cells. Also provided are methods of inhibiting the growth or reducing the volume of a solid tumor by administering the immunostimulatory bacteria.

The present disclosure pertains to immune cells comprising exogenous fibrolytic agents and/or exogenous anti-inflammatory agents and methods of using immune cells comprising exogenous fibrolytic agents and/or exogenous anti-inflammatory agents.

The present invention provides engineered cells having at least one chimeric antigen receptor polypeptide, and optionally at least one of a cytokine and chemokine.

A cytokine-based multi-epitope protein for binding to CC-chemokine receptor type 7 (CCR7)-positive cells, including immunomodulatory molecules. The immunomodulatory molecules include a truncated granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), truncated chemokines, a truncated interleukin 1 beta (IL-1β), and a chemokine secretory signal peptide. The truncated chemokines include a truncated CC-chemokine ligand-19 (CCL19) and a truncated CC-chemokine ligand-21 (CCL21). Each of the truncated chemokines includes a respective DCCL motif, a respective putative receptor binding cleft, and a respective putative glycosaminoglycan binding site.

The present invention relates generally to the fields of oncology, virology and immunotherapy. More particularly, it concerns the use of poxviruses, specifically the replication competent attenuated vaccinia virus with deletion of thymidine kinase (VC-TK.sup.−) with and without the expression of human Flt3L or GM-CSF as oncolytic and immunotherapy. The foregoing poxviruses can also be used in combination with immune checkpoint blocking agents. The foregoing poxviruses can also be inactivated via Heat or UV-treatment and the inactivated virus can be used as immunotherapy either alone or in combination with immune checkpoint blocking agents.

The present invention relates to pharmaceutical compositions containing lipid-bacteriophage conjugates, wherein the bacteriophage:lipid ratio is in the range of 3:1 to 100:1 and wherein the lipid is an immunologically active lipid and the bacteriophage is a filamentous bacteriophage, and uses thereof. Preferably, the bacteriophage is engineered to stimulate an immune response and/or bind to a target cell.

The invention relates to compositions of vault complexes containing recombinant cytokine fusion proteins that include a cytokine and a vault targeting domain, and methods of using the vault complexes to deliver the cytokines to a cell or subject, and methods for using the compositions to treat cancer, such as lung cancer.

A vaccinia virus into which a therapeutic gene has been introduced as an exogenous gene and a therapeutic composition containing the same. The vaccinia virus contains at least one immune regulating gene as an exogenous gene.