The present invention relates to peptides, proteins, nucleic acids and cells for use in immunotherapeutic methods. In particular, the present invention relates to the immunotherapy of cancer. The present invention furthermore relates to tumor-associated T-cell peptide epitopes, alone or in combination with other tumor-associated peptides that can for example serve as active pharmaceutical ingredients of vaccine compositions that stimulate anti-tumor immune responses, or to stimulate T cells ex vivo and transfer into patients. Peptides bound to molecules of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), or peptides as such, can also be targets of antibodies, soluble T-cell receptors, and other binding molecules.

A method for culturing natural killer cells uses genetically modified T cells. The method for culturing natural killer cells, using genetically modified T cells enables the effective proliferation and production of natural killer cells from a smaller amount of source cells. In addition, the method enhances the cytolytic activity of natural killer cells. Therefore, the method for culturing natural killer cells, using genetically modified T cells may be suitable for various applications in commercializing cell therapy products. Further, the natural killer cells produced by the culturing method can be useful as a cell therapy product.

The present invention generally relates to T cells that are modified to enhance the efficiency of adoptive cellular therapy by modulating dendritic cell activity, a composition comprising modified T cells, vectors and methods for the treatment of cancer comprising administering modified T cells. In particular, the present invention provides modified T cells for use in adoptive cellular therapies for the treatment of solid tumours.

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 by 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 are modified to 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 relates to compositions and methods for treating cancer. For example, a modified cell may include a polynucleotide comprising an NFAT promoter, a nucleotide sequence encoding therapeutic agent, and a nucleotide sequence encoding a VHL-interaction domain of HIF1, wherein the therapeutic agent comprises, for example, IL-12, IL-6, and/or IFN.

The invention discloses novel RAR gamma selective agonists used in the treatment of cancer. The invention also discloses administration of RAR gamma selective agonists to mammals, including humans for the purpose of selectively activating RAR gamma receptor and treat cancer by way of activating tumor infiltrating lymphocytes.

The present disclosure relates in some aspects to methods, cells, and compositions for preparing cells and compositions for genetic engineering and cell therapy. Provided in some embodiments are streamlined cell preparation methods, e.g., for isolation, processing, incubation, and genetic engineering of cells and populations of cells. Also provided are cells and compositions produced by the methods and methods of their use. The cells can include immune cells, such as T cells, and generally include a plurality of isolated T cell populations or types. In some aspects, the methods are capable of preparing of a plurality of different cell populations for adoptive therapy using fewer steps and/or resources and/or reduced handling compared with other methods.

Chemically induced dimerizers (AbCIDs) have emerged as one of the most powerful tools to artificially regulate signaling pathways in cells; however, no facile method to identify or design these systems currently exists. The present invention provides a methodology to rapidly generate antibody-based chemically induced dimerizers (AbCIDs) from known small-molecule-protein complexes by selecting for synthetic antibodies that recognize the chemical epitope created by the bound small molecule. Success of this strategy is demonstrated by generating ten chemically-inducible antibodies against the BCL-xL/ABT-737 complex. Three of the antibodies are highly selective for the BCL-xL/ABT-737 complex over BCL-xL alone. Two exemplary important cellular applications of AbCIDs are demonstrated by applying them intracellularly to induce CRISPRa-mediated gene expression and extracellularly to regulate CAR T-cell activation with the small molecule, ABT-737. ABT-737 is not toxic at the concentrations used to activate AbCIDs in cells. AbCIDs provided by this invention are new and orthogonal AbCIDs, expanding the limited toolbox of available CIDs.

The present disclosure relates to methods for expanding and increasing the cytotoxic activity of natural killer cells comprising co-culturing, as feeder cells, a population of myeloid leukemia cells engineered to express one or more of membrane-bound IL-21 (mbIL-21) or membrane-bound IL-15 (mbIL-15) in the presence of cytokine support. The present disclosure also relates to a population of acute myeloid leukemia cells engineered to express one or more of membrane-bound IL-21 (mbIL-21) or membrane-bound IL-15 (mbIL-15). The present disclosure also relates to methods of treating cancer employing the step of expanding natural killer cells using feeder cells engineered to express one or more of membrane-bound IL-21 (mbIL-21) or membrane-bound IL-15 (mbIL-15).

This invention relates to producing vaccines, such as cancer vaccines, by methods of forming an expansion of a lymphoid network in a subject the method comprising: administering to the subject a polymer suspension composition comprising: a natural polymer and cells; gelling the polymer suspension composition in vivo to form a hydrogel composition scaffold; and expanding the cell population to form an expansion of the lymphoid network, including in vivo. It also relates to hydrogel compositions comprising a natural polymer, along with cells, a pharmaceutical composition or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, a modulating agent, and/or a targeting agent, as well as methods of making and using the hydrogel compositions as biotherapeutic scaffolds for treatment of cancers or tumors, including in vivo.