The inventors provide a new therapeutic strategy to treat cancers expressing embryonic antigens. Accordingly, the present invention relates to a method of treating a subject suffering from a cancer comprising a step of administration simultaneously, separately or sequentially to said subject a therapeutically amount of i) a population of derived engineered fetal stem cells carrying cancer associated fetal neo-antigen and ii) a compound selected from a group which activates immune response, as a combined preparation.

The present application relates generally to genetically modified arenaviruses that are suitable vaccines against neoplastic diseases, such as cancer. The arenaviruses described herein may be suitable for vaccines and/or treatment of neoplastic diseases and/or for the use in immunotherapies. In particular, provided herein are methods and compositions for treating a neoplastic disease by administering a genetically modified arenavirus in combination with an immune checkpoint inhibitor, wherein the arenavirus has been engineered to include a nucleotide sequence encoding a tumor antigen, tumor associated antigen or antigenic fragment thereof.

The present invention relates to an mRNA construct, comprising a target protein or peptide coding region and an IRES region downstream of the target protein or peptide coding region, wherein the mRNA construct of the present invention can stably maintain the expression of a target protein for a long time while being stably present in the cell.

A composition comprising mesoporous silica rods comprising an immune cell recruitment compound and an immune cell activation compound, and optionally comprising an antigen such as a tumor lysate. The composition is used to elicit an immune response to a vaccine antigen.

Disclosed herein are cells that are immune cells or precursor cells thereof, which cells recombinantly express a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR), and a dominant negative form of an inhibitor of a cell-mediated immune response of the immune cell, wherein the CAR binds to a cancer antigen. Also disclosed herein are T cells that recognize and are sensitized to a cancer antigen, which T cells recombinantly express a dominant negative form of an inhibitor of a T cell-mediated immune response. Additionally provided are methods of using such cells to treat cancer in a subject in need thereof.

The present invention provides immunoresponsive cells, including T cells, cytotoxic T cells, regulatory T cells, and Natural Killer (NK) cells, expressing an antigen recognizing receptor and an inhibitory chimeric antigen receptor (iCAR). Methods of using the immunoresponsive cell include those for the treatment of neoplasia and other pathologies where an increase in an antigen-specific immune response is desired.

The present application relates generally to genetically modified arenaviruses that are suitable vaccines against neoplastic diseases, such as cancer. The arenaviruses described herein may be suitable for vaccines and/or treatment of neoplastic diseases and/or for the use in immunotherapies. In particular, provided herein are methods and compositions for treating a neoplastic disease by administering a genetically modified arenavirus in combination with an immune checkpoint inhibitor, wherein the arenavirus has been engineered to include a nucleotide sequence encoding a tumor antigen, tumor associated antigen or antigenic fragment thereof.

A potent human and mouse Toll-like receptor (TLR)1/TLR2 agonist was identified and optimized, Diprovocim, which exhibited an EC.sub.50 of 110 pM in human THP-1 cells and 1.3 nM in primary mouse peritoneal macrophages. In mice, Diprovocim-adjuvanted ovalbumin immunization promoted antigen-specific humoral and CTL responses, and synergized with anti-PD-L1 treatment to inhibit tumor growth, generating long-term anti-tumor memory, curing or prolonging survival of mice engrafted with the murine melanoma B16-OVA. Diprovocim induced greater frequencies of tumor infiltrating leukocytes than alum, of which CD8 T cells were necessary for the antitumor effect of immunization plus anti-PD-L1 treatment.

The present invention relates to monoclonal antibodies against MELK. Furthermore, the present invention provides methods for diagnosing MELK-associated diseases using the antibodies, methods for detecting the MELK protein, methods for determining the drug efficacy following treatment with a MELK inhibitor, methods of screening for subjects to whom a MELK inhibitor has a high therapeutic effect, and diagnostic reagents containing the antibodies.

Chimpanzee adenovirus (ChAd) and MVA virus vectors containing polynucleotide sequences encoding cancer antigens are administered sequentially to a subject in a suitable adjuvant in order to achieve a prime boost effect. The polynucleotides are expressed in situ following administration to provide a MAGEA3/linker/NY-ESO-1 fusion protein and variants thereof. Also, a hli/MAGEA3/linker/NY-ESO-1 fusion protein and variants thereof. An improved T cell response is found. In a particular synergistic therapeutic approach a triple combination of ChAdOx and MVA vectors together with chemotherapeutic agent and checkpoint inhibitor results in depleted myeloid derived suppressor cells (MDSC) and dramatically improves survival time in a mouse model of cancer.