Date: 2016-12-29
Type of information: Publication of results in a medical journal
phase: preclinical
Announcement:
Company: Argen-X (Belgium - The Netherlands)
Product: ARGX-110
Action
mechanism: monoclonal antibody/immune checkpoint inhibitor. ARGX-110 is a SIMPLE Antibody(TM) targeting CD70, an immune checkpoint target involved in hematological malignancies, several solid tumors and severe autoimmune diseases. ARGX-110 works in three ways: i) blocks growth of tumor cells, ii) kills cancer cells and iii) restores immune surveillance against tumors (Silence K. et al. mAbs 2014; 6 (2):523-532). ARGX-110 is currently being evaluated in hematological and solid tumors. Preclinical work on ARGX-110 in AML was done in collaboration with the Tumor Immunology Lab of Prof. A. F. Ochsenbein at the University of Bern. Prof. Ochsenbein won the prestigious 2016 Otto Naegeli Prize for their breakthrough research on CD70/CD27 signaling with therapeutic potential for cancer patients.
Disease: acute myeloid leukemia (AML)
Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology
Country:
Trial details:
Latest
news: * On December 29, 2016, argenx announced the publication of new preclinical data in The Journal of Experimental Medicine. These data on the CD70/CD27 pathway provide further rationale for ARGX-110 therapy for the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). ARGX-110, a SIMPLE Antibody™ targeting CD70, is currently being evaluated in a Phase I/II study in combination with azacitidine in newly diagnosed AML patients.
Data published by argenx collaborator Prof. Adrian Ochsenbein at the University of Bern, demonstrate that CD70/CD27 is highly expressed on AML blasts and leukemic stem cells in newly diagnosed AML patients, regardless of cytogenetic factors, or the patient's risk class. The published data show the CD70/CD27 pathway to be critical in the biology of leukemic stem cells, and therapeutic intervention using a CD70-targeted antibody to enable selective targeting of leukemic stem cells without impacting hematopoietic stem cells, resulting in a survival benefit in preclinical AML models.
