Entrome SA, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company will work with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) in New York City to evaluate the potential of gut microbiome-derived antigens for development as cancer immunotherapies.
Enterome said in the press release it is working on a new approach to cancer immunotherapy based on the concept of “molecular mimicry”, in which microbiome-derived bacterial antigens that show molecular similarity with Tumor-associated Antigens (TAAs) and Tumor-specific Neoantigens (TSNAs) are used to trigger tumor-specific cytotoxic T cell immune responses. The company refers to these bacterial antigens as “onco-mimics.”
Enterome has developed its Onco-Mimics discovery platform to identify such antigens from the human gut microbiome and has advanced EO2401 as its first clinical candidate. EO2401 comprises several microbiome-derived antigens that mimic those that are selectively over-expressed by a number of solid tumors. Entrome said it aims to develop EO2401 as a potential new immunotherapy for several indications, with an initial focus on recurrent glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a devastating cancer for which no curative treatments exist. The first clinical trial is planned to start by the end of 2019.
The goal for this new research collaboration is to generate further evidence to support Enterome’s Onco-Mimics immunotherapy platform and will look at validating its application in several tumor types including melanoma, lung and pancreatic
Christophe Bonny, CSO of Enterome, said: “We believe that this cutting-edge research will provide a solid scientific foundation that will enable us to further develop our pipeline of new immunotherapy candidates for multiple cancer indications.”
Taha Merghoub PhD Biologist at MSK said: “The microbiome concept presents an exciting new approach to the development of cancer immunotherapies and our understanding of how the microbiome works keeps improving with emerging data highlighting the important link between the microbiome and the effectiveness of immunotherapies.“