IL-36γ-armed oncolytic virus exerts superior efficacy through induction of potent adaptive antitumor immunity

In this study, we aimed to apply the cytokine IL-36γ to cancer immunotherapy by constructing new oncolytic vaccinia viruses (OV) expressing interleukin-36γ (IL-36γ-OVs), leveraging unique synergism between OV and IL-36γ’s ability to promote antitumor adaptive immunity and modulate tumor microenvironment (TME). IL-36γ-OV had dramatic therapeutic efficacies in multiple murine tumor models, frequently leading to complete cancer eradication in large fractions of mice. Mechanistically, IL-36-γ-armed OV induced infiltration of lymphocytes and dendritic cells, decreased myeloid-derived suppressor cells and M2-like tumor-associated macrophages, and T cell differentiation into effector cells. Further study showed that IL-36γ-OV increased the number of tumor antigen-specific CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells and the therapeutic efficacy depended on both CD8(+) and CD4(+) T cells. These results demonstrate that these IL36γ-armed OVs exert potent therapeutic efficacy mainly though antitumor immunity and they may hold great potential to advance treatment in human cancer patients. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at(10.1007/s00262-021-02860-4)