Glatiramer acetate enhances tumor retention and innate activation of immunostimulants

Cancer immunotherapy aims to stimulate immune cells to recognize and attack tumor tissue. The immunostimulatory polyanions polyI:C and CpG induce potent pro-inflammatory immune responses as TLR3 and TLR9 agonists, respectively. Clinical trials of TLR agonists, however, have been fraught with immune-related adverse events, even when injecting intratumorally in an effort to minimize systemic exposure. We identified Glatiramer Acetate (GA), a positively-charged polypeptide approved for multiple sclerosis, as a delivery agent capable of complexing with polyI:C or CpG and reducing the mobility of these actives. Small nanoparticles termed polyplexes form when mixing positively-charged GA and negatively-charged immunostimulant (polyI:C or CpG). The ratio of GA to immunostimulant directly affected the potency of TLR activation and the mobility of these actives in simulated tumor tissue. Polyplexes of GA and CpG were injected intratumorally in a tumor model of head and neck cancer (HNC) and significantly mitigated tumor growth as compared to the vehicle controls. Intratumoral injections of CpG showed the slowest tumor growth but exhibited dramatically higher systemic proinflammatory cytokine levels compared to polyplexes of GA with CpG. Sequencing of RNA from resected tumors revealed a similar pattern of upregulated proinflammatory cytokines for CpG and polyplexes, a finding supported by histological tumor staining showing similar infiltration of immune cells induced by these treatments. Intratumoral administration of polyplexes of GA with immunostimulant represents a translational approach to enhance local immune responses while mitigating systemic immune-related adverse events.