Brief Communication; A Heterologous Oncolytic Bacteria-Virus Prime-Boost Approach for Anticancer Vaccination in Mice

Anticancer vaccination is becoming a popular therapeutic approach for patients with cancers expressing common tumor antigens. One variation on this strategy is a heterologous virus vaccine where 2 viruses encoding the same tumor antigen are administered sequentially to prime and boost antitumor immunity. This approach is currently undergoing clinical investigation using an adenovirus (Ad) and the oncolytic virus Maraba (MRB). In this study, we show that Listeria monocytogenes can be used in place of the Ad to obtain comparable immune priming efficiency before MRB boosting. Importantly, the therapeutic benefits provided by our heterologous L. monocytogenes-MRB prime-boost strategy are superior to those conferred by the Ad-MRB combination. Our study provides proof of concept for the heterologous oncolytic bacteria-virus prime-boost approach for anticancer vaccination and merits its consideration for clinical testing.