BioLineRx announced that it has successfully completed the dose-escalation part of the Phase 1/2a clinical study for AGI-134, a novel compound that evokes a direct anti-tumor response, as well as a vaccine effect, via a unique, multi-arm mechanism that targets patient-specific tumor
neoantigens. AGI-134 was found to be safe and well tolerated, with no serious drug-related adverse events or dose-limiting toxicities reported.
Using ATLAS, we can both optimize
neoantigens for inclusion in our immunotherapies and exclude so-called 'inhibitory' antigens that appear to exert an immunosuppressive effect on the patient.
- An in-depth analysis of the various patents that have been filed/granted related to
neoantigens until April 2019.
The GT-EPIC platform is poised to deliver the following key advantages: ability to drive potent and broad T cell immune responses, capability to target an unprecedented number of
neoantigens in a single formulation, and a rapid manufacturing turnaround time.
In the study, the researchers were able to characterise and identify the
neoantigens driving the antitumor responses in a patient treated with an anti-PD-1 blockade and isolate the T cell receptors responsible for such effect.
According to the company, NOUS-209 is an off-the-shelf therapeutic cancer vaccine based on shared frame-shift
neoantigens.
Based on preclinical data, NOUS-209, which is an off-the-shelf cancer vaccine based on shared frame-shift
neoantigens, is expected to induce potent and broad CD8+ and CD4+ responses in humans, concluded the company.
The first patient, treated at the University of Cincinnati (UC) in Cincinnati, Ohio, by John Morris, MD, professor at the UC College of Medicine and director of the area's only Phase I/Experimental Therapeutics Program, has been enrolled to receive a personalized virus that has been "armed" with peptide fragments or
neoantigens from his specific tumors.
The belief is that the immune cells recognize nonself aspects of tumors such as
neoantigens that are caused by somatic mutations.
Importantly, low-fitness
neoantigens identified by our method may be leveraged for developing novel immunotherapies," they wrote (Nature.
Tumor-specific antigens (TSAs), called as
neoantigens, are created by the genomic codon alternations, editing, usage, antigen processing, and presentation [4, 5].