Cancer immunotherapy
Alemany’s & Piulats’s lab

DESCRIPTION

Our main aim is to develop new anticancer treatments based on novel designs of oncolytic adenoviruses, combining them with mesenchymal stem cells and cellular therapies derived from tumor reactive T-lymphocytes against solid tumors.

The Cancer Immunotherapy group, led by Dr Piulats and Dr Alemany, is dedicated to develop new immunotherapies based on oncolytic adenoviruses or advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs) to treat the so-called “cold” tumors and rare malignancies. Oncolytic viruses represent a double antitumor strategy: they have an oncolytic activity and on top of that, they promote lymphocyte infiltration and immune responses against tumors. We are designing and evaluating new oncolytic adenovirus to improve their Intratumor diffusion and tumor reactivity and testing those using murine models. We are developing CAR-NK cells models, cell therapies based on autoreactive TCRs from patients and combined ATMP using virus and mesenchymal stem cells. We combine clinical and translational research, and we have led different clinical trials based on immunotherapy, demonstrating the feasibility of immunotherapy approaches to treat this kind of tumors.

Group members

Ramón Alemany Bonastre

Group leaders

Josep Maria Piulats Rodríguez

Group leaders

Publications

IL-6 Signaling Blockade during CD40-Mediated Immune Activation Favors Antitumor Factors by Reducing TGF-β, Collagen Type I, and PD-L1/PD-1

9 de January de 2019/in Alemany’s & Piulats’s lab/by

J Immunol. 2019 Feb 1;202(3):787-798. doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.1800717. Epub 2019 Jan 7. ABSTRACT IL-6 plays a role in cancer pathogenesis via its connection to proteins involved in the formation of desmoplastic stroma and to immunosuppression by driving differentiation of myeloid suppressor cells together with TGF-β. Inhibition of IL-6 signaling in the tumor microenvironment may, thus, limit […]

Chemotherapy and PARP inhibitors in heavily pretreated BRCA1/2 mutation ovarian cancer (BMOC) patients

16 de December de 2018/in Alemany’s & Piulats’s lab/by

Gynecol Oncol. 2019 Feb;152(2):270-277. doi: 10.1016/j.ygyno.2018.11.036. Epub 2018 Dec 12. ABSTRACT OBJECTIVES: The hallmarks of germline(g) and/or somatic(s) BRCA1/2 mutation ovarian cancer (BMOC) patients are increased sensitivity to platinum-based chemotherapy (PCT) and PARP inhibitors (PARPi). There is little information on the effectiveness of chemotherapy in heavily pretreated (≥3 CT lines) g/sBMOC patients. METHODS: g/sBMOC patients […]

CAR-T Cells and Oncolytic Viruses: Joining Forces to Overcome the Solid Tumor Challenge

9 de November de 2018/in Alemany’s & Piulats’s lab/by

Front Immunol. 2018 Oct 23;9:2460. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2018.02460. eCollection 2018. ABSTRACT Adoptive transfer of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-modified T cells has resulted in unprecedented rates of long-lasting complete responses in patients with leukemia and lymphoma. However, despite the impressive results in patients with hematologic malignancies, CAR-T cells have showed limited effect against solid cancers. New approaches […]

Bioselection Reveals miR-99b and miR-485 as Enhancers of Adenoviral Oncolysis in Pancreatic Cancer

21 de October de 2018/in Alemany’s & Piulats’s lab/by

Mol Ther. 2019 Jan 2;27(1):230-243. doi: 10.1016/j.ymthe.2018.09.016. Epub 2018 Sep 27. ABSTRACT Oncolytic viruses are designed for cancer treatment. Cell-virus interactions are key determinants for successful viral replication. Therefore, the extensive reprogramming of gene expression that occurs in tumor cells might create a hurdle for viral propagation. We used a replication-based approach of a microRNA […]

Enhanced Antitumor Efficacy of Oncolytic Adenovirus-loaded Menstrual Blood-derived Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Combination with Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells

17 de October de 2018/in Alemany’s & Piulats’s lab/by

Mol Cancer Ther. 2019 Jan;18(1):127-138. doi: 10.1158/1535-7163.MCT-18-0431. Epub 2018 Oct 15. ABSTRACT Several studies have evaluated the efficacy of using human oncolytic adenovirus (OAdv)-loaded mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) for cancer treatment. For example, we have described the antitumor efficacy of CELYVIR, autologous bone marrow-mesenchymal stem cells infected with the OAdv ICOVIR-5, for treatment of patients […]

Research Projects

Name: Dr Ramón Alemany Bonastre
Role: Group leader (coPI)

Name: Dr Josep Maria Piulats Rodríguez, MD
Role: Group leader (coPI)

Name: Dr Rafael Moreno Olié
Role: Principal Investigator

Name: Dr María Dolores López Robles
Role: Postdoctoral researcher

Name: Dr Marcel Costa García
Role: Postdoctoral Researcher

Name: Dr Gabriel Espinosa Carrasco
Role: Postdoctoral researcher

Name: Sílvia Torres Manjón
Role: Lab manager

Name: Laura Moya Borrrego
Role: Predoctoral Researcher

Name: Pau Fiol Mata
Role: Predoctoral Researcher

Name: Luís Paul del Carpio Huerta, MD
Role: Predoctoral Researcher (Rio Ortega contract)

Name: Juan Antonio Marín Jiménez, MD
Role: Predoctoral Researcher (La Caixa- Inphinit Retaining)

Name: Sebastián Ciro Carné Martín
Role: Predoctoral Researcher

Name: Ainhoa Muñoz Metrino
Role: Technician

Name: Dr Carles Codony Servat
Role: Project manager

Collaborations

Dr Alemany has published 129 articles, several book chapters and 16 patents (5 in the exploitation phase) in the field of therapeutic use of adenoviruses as gene vectors or oncolytic viruses. Editor of the journals “Gene Therapy” “Cancer Gene Therapy” and “Human Gene Therapy”, President of the Spanish Society of Gene and Cellular Therapy from 2016 to 2018, and advisor to several biotech companies that develop oncolytic viruses (ORCA Therapeutics, Oncolytics Biotech, Sagetis). In 2009 he co-founded the company VCN Biosciences. GHe collaborates among othersc with: Cristina Fillat Fonts, IDIBAPS; Juan José Rojas Expósito, IDIBELL; Javier García Castro, ISCIII , Madrid; Manuel Ramírez Orellana, Hosp Niño Jesús, Madrid; Alena Gros Vidal, VHIO; Sonia Guedan Carrió, IDIBAPS.

Dr Piulats is chair for Uveal Melanoma in the Spanish Melanoma group. He is part of the IRCI (International Rare Cancer Initiative) and EURACAN for rare melanoma and rare cutaneous tumors. He collaborates with Dr Alvaro Aytes (Idibell) and Dr Himisha Beltran (Dana Farber) in prostate cancer (projects Fundación Mútua Madrileña and DoD Prostate Cancer) and with Dr Xavier Matías-Guiu and Dr Alena Gros in Gynecologic tumors (La MaratóTV3, Immune4all in Ayudas de Proyectos de Investigación de Medicina Personalizada de Precisión). He collaborates with Dr Moreno (ICO-Idibell) and Dr África González Murillo (Hospital Universitario del Niño Jesús) in the PULSE-UM clinical study and with Dr Juan Marín Liberal (ICO), Drs Alena Gros, Elena Garralda (VHIO), Dr Sergi Querol (Banc de sang i Teixits) and Dr Jesús García-Donas Jiménez (Centro Integral Oncológico Clara Campal) (Proyectos Clinica Independiente – ISCIII).

Presently Dr Piulats has begun a collaboration asking for new funding for novel treatments in metastatic uveal melanoma with Alena Gros (VHIO), Gal Cafri and Yochai Wolf from Sheba Research Institute in Israel and Udai Kammula from UPMC in USA.

Dr Moreno collaborates in the development of NK-CAR cells with Dr Ana Sureda (ICO). He also collaborates with Dr. Marta Alonso (CIMA-University of Navarra) in the development towards a protocol and clinical application for GBM.

Cancer immunotherapy Alemany’s & Piulats’s lab

DESCRIPTION

Ramón Alemany Bonastre

Group leaders

Josep Maria Piulats Rodríguez

Group leaders

Rafael Moreno Olié

Researchers

María Dolores López Robles

Researchers

Gabriel Espinosa Carrasco

Researchers

Marcel Costa García

Researchers

Luís Paul del Carpio Huerta

Researchers

Juan Antonio Marín Jiménez

Young investigators

Laura Moya Borrego

Young investigators

Pau Fiol Mata

Young investigators

Sebastián Ciro Carné Martín

Young investigators

Silvia Torres Manjón

Support staff

Ainhoa Muñoz Metrino

Support staff

Carles Codony Servat

Support staff

CONTACT US

Cancer immunotherapy
Alemany’s & Piulats’s lab