Abstract #0977

MR Visualization of Depot Vaccines & Immune Activation for Cancer Therapies

Drew R. DeBay¹, Sarah A. LeBlanc¹, Genevieve M. Weir², Marc Mansour², Chris V. Bowen^1,3

¹National Research Council - Institute for Biodiagnostics (Atlantic), Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; ²Immunovaccine Inc., Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; ³Department of Physics & Atmospheric Science, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Due to the inherent composition of depot vaccine formulations, they are ideally suited for visualization with MRI. This study aimed to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of a novel vaccine platform, Depovax^TM and characterize the immune response with MRI in the in vivo longitudinal assessment of mice subject to tumor challenge. We have shown for the first time, direct evidence of complete tumor eradication and immune activation elicited by Depovax^TM. MRI is a valuable tool in effectively elucidating the mechanisms of action, clearance and characterization of immune response as these vaccine products proceed through clinical development.