Immunotherapy coverage on Peptide News Digest is the peptide-side cross-section: cancer peptide vaccines, peptide-drug conjugates that combine targeting peptides with cytotoxic payloads, T-cell engagers built around peptide scaffolds, and HLA-restricted peptide presentation work.
Key threads: ELI-002 amphiphile-peptide vaccine (AMPLIFY-201), autogene cevumeran (BioNTech/Genentech), bicyclic peptide-payload conjugates from Bicycle Therapeutics, Verismo's KIR-CAR program, BriaCell's Bria-IMT in metastatic breast cancer, and Longhorn Vaccines' DRG5-BD11 peptidoglycan-based platform. Several AACR 2026 abstracts on peptide-MHC class II programs from Leukogene also land here.
Stories here cover trial readouts and platform launches. See #peptide-vaccine, #peptide-drug-conjugate, and #neoantigen for narrower threads.
Recent reviews and real-world observation studies aggregate the state of peptide-vaccine immunotherapy for glioblastoma. A 2024 Nature Communications real-world observational study reported clinically meaningful outcomes for personalized peptide vaccines; the UCPVax + temozolomide trial (NCT04280848) showed 97% anti-TERT immune response, 48% epitope spread, median OS 17.9 months, and 26% alive at 2 years. The peptide-vaccine modality is one of multiple approaches (mRNA, dendritic cell, neoantigen) advancing alongside immune checkpoint blockade.
BriaCell's Bria-IMT + checkpoint inhibitor combination preserved overall health status and key functional quality-of-life measures in its pivotal Phase 3 study in heavily pretreated metastatic breast cancer patients who had failed ADC, CPI, and CDK4/6 inhibitor therapy. Phase 2 biomarker analyses identified mitotic circulating tumor cells as prognostic and PD-L1 in tumor-macrophage fusion cells as predictive of checkpoint benefit. Presented at AACR April 20.
Nearly half of participants in a Phase 1 trial of BioNTech/Genentech's personalized mRNA neoantigen vaccine autogene cevumeran remain alive up to six years after treatment, with T-cell responses showing no signs of waning. Eight of 16 patients produced durable CD8+ T cells targeting tumor neoantigens after nine doses, with the immune memory still detectable at six-year follow-up. A Phase 2 trial is underway.
A comprehensive review in Discover Oncology highlights antimicrobial peptides' emerging dual role as anticancer and antiviral therapeutics. AMPs selectively target cancer cell membranes through electrostatic interactions while also demonstrating antiviral activity, with their immunomodulatory properties and reduced resistance development offering advantages over conventional chemotherapy.
A Phase 1 trial published in Nature Medicine showed that FLC-Vac, a therapeutic peptide vaccine targeting the DNAJ-PKAc fusion protein in fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma, combined with nivolumab and ipilimumab achieved 75% disease control (9/12 patients) and 25% partial response rate. All responders showed tumor-specific T cell responses.
A randomized Phase I/II trial of a melanoma helper peptide vaccine with anti-CD27 antibody varlilumab reported 69% four-year disease-free survival in the combination arm versus 20% with vaccine alone. However, varlilumab depleted circulating CD4+ T cells, potentially limiting vaccine synergy and warranting further optimization.