3O A pre-existing inflammatory immune microenvironment predicts the clinical and immunological response of vulvar high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions to therapeutic HPV16 peptide vaccination

Abstract

Abstract Background Vulvar High-grade Squamous Intraepithelial Lesion (vHSIL) is predominantly induced by high-risk Human Papilloma Virus type 16 (HPV16). In two independent trials, therapeutic vaccination against the oncoproteins of HPV16 with synthetic long peptides (SLP) resulted in vHSIL regression in about half of the patients after 12 months. Several studies have shown that the immune microenvironment influences therapy outcome. Therefore, a thorough investigation of the vHSIL immune microenvironment before and after SLP vaccination was performed, and its impact on clinical response was studied. Methods Two novel multiplex immunofluorescence panels were designed for formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue, one for T cells (CD3, CD8, FoxP3, Tim3, Tbet, PD-1, DAPI) and one for myeloid cells (CD14, CD33, CD68, CD163, CD11c, PD-L1, DAPI). Pre- and 3 months post-vaccination biopsies of 29 patients and 27 healthy vulva excisions were stained, scanned with the Vectra multispectral imaging system, and automatically phenotyped and counted with inForm advanced image analysis software. Results A pre-existing pro-inflammatory TME, marked by high numbers of CD4 and CD8 T cells expressing Tbet and/or PD-1 as well as CD14+ inflammatory macrophages, is a strong predictor for good clinical response. A clear stepwise increase in pre-vaccination infiltrating Tbet+, CD4+, CD8+ T cells and CD14+ macrophages, and decrease in Foxp3+ Tregs was observed as response increased from non to partial to complete response. Moreover, the pre-vaccination immune microenvironment of complete responders resembled healthy vulva. Vaccination further increased infiltrating CD4+ and Tbet+ T cells and CD14+ macrophages and decreased FoxP3+ Tregs in the complete and partial responders, but not in the non responders. Conclusion Clinical responsiveness to therapeutic HPV16 SLP vaccination requires a pre-existing inflamed type 1 immune contexture in vHSIL. Hence, only patients with an inflamed TME should be selected for monotherapy by therapeutic vaccination, since this strategy is incapable of creating an inflamed TME in patients where this is absent. Legal entity responsible for the study The authors. Funding Leiden University Medical Center. Disclosure S.H. van der Burg: Advisory / Consultancy: ISA Pharmaceuticals. All other authors have declared no conflicts of interest.