Date: 2014-08-12
Type of information: Preclinical data
phase: preclinical
Announcement: preclinical data
Company: Scancell Holdings (UK)
Product: DNA ImmunoBody® vaccine SCIB1
Action
mechanism: SCIB1 is a plasmid DNA which encodes a human antibody molecule engineered to express a melanoma antigen called Tyrosinase-Related Protein 2 (TRP2) plus two helper T cell epitopes. Following immunisation, the engineered antibody will be expressed and be taken up by dendritic cells, resulting in the development of immune responses against tumour cells expressing the TRP2 antigen. SCIB1 was designed so that the Fc component of the engineered antibody will be recognised by the high affinity CD64 receptor present on dendritic cells, leading to a significant enhancement of both the frequency and avidity of the T cell immune response. The induction of high avidity T cells against TRP-2 is expected to lead to the inhibition and regression of both primary and metastatic tumour growth.
Disease:
Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology
Country:
Trial details:
Latest
news: * On August 12, 2014, Scancell Holdings, the developer of novel immunotherapies for the treatment of cancer, announced new data demonstrating that animals treated with a combination of SCIB1, Scancell’s ImmunoBody® vaccine in development for the treatment of melanoma, and checkpoint inhibition (blockade of the PD-1 immune checkpoint pathway), showed enhanced tumour destruction and significantly longer survival times than when either treatment was used alone. Scancell has previously shown that administration of SCIB1 alone induced potent tumour-specific T cell responses associated with increased T cell infiltration into the tumour and enhanced proliferation of T cells within the tumour resulting in tumour rejection and long-term survival in 50% of animals. In the new study, PD-1 blockade, when used alone, resulted in tumour rejection and long-term survival in 55% of animals. However, the combination of PD-1 blockade with SCIB1 vaccination further enhanced T cell infiltration, resulting in tumour rejection and long-term survival in 85% of animals. These results highlight the potential benefits of combining SCIB1 with PD-1 blockade in the treatment of cancer. Checkpoint inhibitors can enable the host immune system to recognise, attack and destroy cancer cells. However, checkpoint inhibitors cannot work on their own if the patient fails to mount an adequate immune response to the tumour. Taking the brake off immunosuppressive T cells with PD-1 blockade, whilst simultaneously pressing the accelerator with active immunotherapies such as SCIB1 is increasingly regarded as the logical next step towards overwhelming the disease and increasing efficacy. These data confirm for the first time that the combination of SCIB1 with PD-1 blockade enhances tumour destruction and prolongs survival in animal models.
