Dendritic cell targeting with Fc-enhanced CD40 antibody agonists induces durable antitumor immunity in humanized mouse models of bladder cancer

Intravesical immunotherapy using Bacille Calmette-Guerin (BCG) attenuated bacteria delivered transurethrally to the bladder has been the standard of care for patients with high-risk non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) for several decades. BCG therapy continues to be limited by high rates of disease recurrence and progression, and patients with BCG-unresponsive disease have few effective salvage therapy options besides radical cystectomy, highlighting a need for new therapies. We report that the immune-stimulatory receptor CD40 is highly expressed on dendritic cells (DCs) within the bladder tumor microenvironment of orthotopic bladder cancer mouse models, recapitulating CD40 expression by DCs found in human disease. We demonstrate that local CD40 agonism in mice with orthotopic bladder cancer through intravesical delivery of anti-CD40 agonist antibodies drives potent antitumor immunity and induces pharmacodynamic effects in the bladder tumor microenvironment, including a reduction in CD8(+) T cells with an exhausted phenotype. We further show that type 1 conventional DCs (cDC1) and CD8(+) T cells are required for both bladder cancer immune surveillance and anti-CD40 agonist antibody responses. Using orthotopic murine models humanized for CD40 and Fc. receptors, we demonstrate that intravesical treatment with a fully human, Fc-enhanced anti-CD40 agonist antibody (2141-V11) induces robust antitumor activity in both treatment-naive and treatment-refractory settings, driving long-term systemic antitumor immunity with no evidence of systemic toxicity. These findings support targeting CD40-expressing DCs in the bladder cancer microenvironment through an intravesical agonistic antibody approach for the treatment of NMIBC.

Automated summary

This study demonstrates that CD40-expressing dendritic cells in the bladder tumor microenvironment can be targeted through intravesical delivery of CD40 agonist antibodies, leading to potent antitumor immune responses and reduction of exhausted CD8(+) T cells. These findings suggest a promising approach for the treatment of high-risk non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer.