Gary L. Villereal Photo Album

Vietnam War, 1961-1975 Branch of Service: Army Unit of Service: 1st Cavalry Division; II Field Forces Location of Service: Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Fort Sill, Oklahoma; III Corps, Vietnam; Phouc Vinh, Vietnam; Tan Son Nhut, Vietnam; Fire Support Base Buttons, Vietnam; Special Forces Camp Bu Dop, Vietnam; Song Be, Vietnam; Phuoc Luu, Vietnam; Duc Hue, Vietnam Highest Rank: Specialist Five Dates of Service: 1968-1970 Entrance into Service: Drafted Military Status: Veteranhttps://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/veterans/1024/thumbnail.jp

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

Interview with Gary L. Villereal

Vietnam War, 1961-1975 Branch of Service: Army Unit of Service: 1st Cavalry Division; II Field Forces Location of Service: Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Fort Sill, Oklahoma; III Corps, Vietnam; Phouc Vinh, Vietnam; Tan Son Nhut, Vietnam; Fire Support Base Buttons, Vietnam; Special Forces Camp Bu Dop, Vietnam; Song Be, Vietnam; Phuoc Luu, Vietnam; Duc Hue, Vietnam Highest Rank: Specialist Five Dates of Service: 1968-1970 Entrance into Service: Drafted Military Status: Veteranhttps://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/veterans/1023/thumbnail.jp

Interview with Juan De Lara

Vietnam War, 1961-1975 Branch of Service: Army Unit of Service: 1st Cavalry, Bravo Company Location of Service: Tay Ninh, Vietnam; LZ Grant (near Cambodian border) Highest Rank: Sergeant Dates of Service: 1969-1970 Military Status: Veteranhttps://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/veterans/1017/thumbnail.jp

Interview with Manuel G. Peña

Vietnam War, 1961-1975 Branch of Service: Army Unit of Service: 93rd Combat Engineer Location of Service: Dong Tam, Tan An, Da Nang, Vietnam Highest Rank: Staff Sergeant Dates of Service: 1968-1970 Military Status: Veteranhttps://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/veterans/1002/thumbnail.jp

Interview with Robert A. Diaz

Vietnam War, 1961-1975 Branch of Service: Air Force Unit of Service: 366th MMS-Tactical Fighter Wing Location of Service: Da Nang Air Field, Vietnam Highest Rank: Staff Sergeant Dates of Service: 1962-1982 Military Status: Veteranhttps://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/veterans/1013/thumbnail.jp