The MGH team demonstrated that intraperitoneal treatment with MTB HSP70-scFv vaccine results in anti-mesothelin immune responses which are significantly greater than those induced by saline or non fusion constructs (p < 0.05, Student t test). The anti-mesothelin immune response was associated with prolonged survival following documentation of clinically evident disease in the experimentally treated animals versus control animals. Vaccinated mice, including those getting the self-assembled vaccine, were twice as likely to be free of tumor as control-treated mice with Ova Ca at autopsy at 42 – 56 days post inoculation with tumor.

Thus, preliminary in vitro and in vivo proof-of-concept studies demonstrated the utility of Boston BioCom’s MTB HSP70-scFv fusion protein to augment anti-tumor responses and provide a new approach for immunotherapy of cancer. The work was selected for presentation at the Dana Farber Cancer Center Research Symposium on Breast and Ovarian Cancer, Boston, March 5, 2010.