-Data demonstrate that UNITE, as a nucleic acid platform, may enhance
antitumor immunity-
ROCKVILLE, Md.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–lt;a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/allergies?src=hash" target="_blank"gt;#allergieslt;/agt;–Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc. will present late-breaking preclinical data
which shows that its’ investigational nucleic acid platform, UNITE, may
enhance antitumor immunity when used in connection with its
investigational DNA vaccine, ITI-7000. In preclinical studies, ITI-7000,
an investigational DNA vaccine targeting ErbB2/HER2, demonstrated robust
activation of known anti-tumor CD4 and CD8 cells in vivo and promoted
tumor infiltration with activated CD8 T cells. These data will be
presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 2019
meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.
“There’s no doubt that DNA vaccines are attractive immunotherapies to
treat cancer and infectious diseases. However, research in this field
has been met with many challenges, one of the most complex being low
levels of immunogenicity and the inability to provoke an immune response
and demonstrate favorable clinical outcomes,” said Teri Heiland, Ph.D.,
Senior Vice President of Research and Development at Immunomic
Therapeutics. “These late-breaking data at AACR suggest that our
proprietary UNITE platform has the potential to enhance the
immunogenicity of DNA vaccines by activating T cell responses and
increasing tumor infiltration. We are highly encouraged by this data and
look forward to continuing to advance ITI-7000 toward the clinic.”
In addition to observing activation of known anti-tumor CD4 and CD8
cells in vivo, Immunomic scientists observed the overexpression
of PDL1 in the tumor microenvironment. This pathway has shown clinical
relevance as a cancer immunotherapy target of the tumor
microenvironment. PDL1 overexpression upregulated by ITI-7000 suggests
that a combination of ITI-7000 with an anti-PD1/PDL1 therapy may
increase the therapeutic potential of either agent on its own. This data
also supports the prevailing belief in the immunotherapy community that
cancer vaccination could synergize with anti PD1 and PDL1 and other
immunotherapies, as well as support the viability of the UNITE platform
as a means to do so. In summary, these findings support the potential of
ITI-7000 as a cancer vaccine and highlight that UNITE, Immunomic’s
nucleic acid platform, may have the potential to enhance immunity of
investigational cancer therapies.
To access Immunomic’s AACR abstract, please visit https://www.abstractsonline.com/pp8/#!/6812/presentation/9236.
Poster Title: DNA vaccine co-expressing Her2/ErbB2 antigen, fused
with LAMP, elicits strong antitumor effects in vivo by increasing tumor
infiltration with CD8+ T cells
Session Category: Immunology
Session
Title: Late-Breaking Research: Immunology 2
Session Date and
Time: Tuesday, April 2, 2019 8:00 AM- 12:00 PM
Location: Georgia
World Congress Center, Exhibit Hall B, Poster Section 42
About UNITE
ITI’s investigational UNITE platform, or UNiversal Intracellular
Targeted Expression, is thought to work by encoding the Lysosomal
Associated Membrane Protein, an endogenous protein in humans. In this
way, ITI’s vaccines (DNA or RNA) have the potential to utilize the
body’s natural biochemistry to develop a broad immune response including
antibody production, cytokine release and critical immunological memory.
This approach could put UNITE technology at the crossroads of
immunotherapies in a number of illnesses, including cancer, allergy and
infectious diseases. UNITE is currently being employed in Phase II
clinical trials as a cancer immunotherapy. ITI is also collaborating
with academic centers and biotechnology companies to study the use of
UNITE in cancer types of high mortality, including cases where there are
limited treatment options like glioblastoma and acute myeloid leukemia.
ITI believes that these early clinical studies may provide a proof of
concept for UNITE therapy in cancer, and if successful, set the stage
for future studies, including combinations in these tumor types and
others. Preclinical data is currently being developed to explore whether
LAMP nucleic acid constructs may amplify and activate the immune
response in highly immunogenic tumor types and be used to create immune
responses to tumor types that otherwise do not provoke an immune
response.
About Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc.
Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc. (ITI) is a privately-held, clinical stage
biotechnology company pioneering the development of vaccines through its
proprietary technology platform, UNiversal Intracellular Targeted
Expression (UNITE), which is designed to utilize the body’s natural
biochemistry to develop vaccines that generate broad immune responses.
ITI’s UNITE platform could potentially have broad therapeutic
applications in oncology, including viral antigens, cancer antigens,
neoantigens and antigen-derived antibodies as biologics and ITI has
built a large pipeline from UNITE with six oncology programs and two
allergy programs. ITI has entered into a significant allergy partnership
with Astellas Pharma and has formed several academic collaborations with
leading Immuno-oncology researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research
Institute, Johns Hopkins University of Medicine, Duke University. ITI
maintains its headquarters in Rockville, Maryland. For more information,
please visit www.immunomix.com.
Contacts
Company Contact:
Sia Anagnostou
AAnagnostou@immunomix.com
717-327-1822
Media Contact:
Amy Conrad
Juniper Point
amy@juniper-point.com
858-366-3243