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Page 14
May 22-23, 2019 | Rome, Italy
OF EXCELLENCE
IN INTERNATIONAL
MEETINGS
YEARS
IMMUNOLOGY
AND CANCER THERAPY
2nd Global Summit on
Immunotherapy 2019 Immunology Case Reports | Volume 3
DEVELOPMENT OF A HEAT SHOCK PROTEIN (HSP) NEO-ANTIGEN VACCINE FOR THE
TREATMENT OF DIFFUSE INTRINSIC PONTINE GLIOMA (DIPG)
Ashley S Plant1, 2, Uduman M3, Castle J3, Bruell J3, Taylor T2, Filbin M4, Kieran M4 and Chi S4
1 Children’s Hospital Orange County, USA
2 University of California, USA
3 Agenus Biotechnologies, USA
4 Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, USA
Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) is a rare and devastating type of brainstem glioma in children which
has <1% five year overall survival. Recent molecular studies have shown 80% of these tumors harbor either
a histone 3.3 or histone 3.1 K27M mutation. These histone mutations occur predictably with other secondary
genetic aberrations including K27M H3.3 with PDGFRA amplifications and K27M H3.1 with ACVR1 mutations.
Using NetMHCpan 4.0 and NetMHCpan 3.2 binding algorithms and predictions of immunogenicity, author has
identified five shared 27-mer sequences for inclusion in a heat shock neo-antigen vaccine for the treatment of
DIPG. Prediction algorithms suggest sequences will cover 96.5% of the class I MHC molecules and 83.9% of the
class II MHC molecules in the North American population resulting in 99.5% combined class I and II coverage in
the population. The phase I clinical trial for pediatric DIPG is now underway.
Ashley S Plant et al., Immunol Case Rep 2019, Volume 3
Ashley S Plant is Director of Neuro-Oncology at Children’s Hospital Orange County (CHOC) and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at
University of California, Irvine, USA. She completed her medical training at Stanford University School of Medicine and her Pediatric
residency training at University of California, Los Angeles, USA. She completed her hematology/oncology fellowship at Boston
Children’s/Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and remained on as a clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School and Neuro-On-
cology attending at Dana Farber before becoming Director of Neuro-Oncology at CHOC. Her previous research was under Dr. Glenn
Dranoff and Dr. Jerome Ritz in the area of immuno-oncology and her current research focus is in understanding the immunopheno-
type of pediatric brain tumors and how to extrapolate this information into future early immunotherapy trials for children.
BIOGRAPHY