Imugene Ltd (ASX:IMU, OTC:IUGNF) has welcomed Dr Anthony Park’s presentation of the company’s data on its ‘onCARlytics (CF33-CD19t) oncolytic virus in combination with CD19 bispecific antibody blinatumomab to target solid tumours’ at the Annual Meeting for the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC), held in Boston, US, on November 8-12, 2022.
DR Park, who works with Dr. Saul Priceman’s Lab at City of Hope, presented “Combination immunotherapy using a novel chimeric oncolytic virus to redirect CD19 bispecific T-cell engagers to target solid tumours”.
The key findings of the presentation were that:
- T-cell activation markers along with IFNγ and IL-2 secretion increase in response to blinatumomab in an onCARlytics dose-dependent manner in co-culture;
- Blinatumomab initiates T-cell-mediated tumour killing in onCARlytics infected solid tumour cells;
- Blinatumomab treatment following onCARlytics infection and T-cell treatment shows a significantly higher tumour regression compared to onCARlytics, blinatumomab, or T-Cells alone in human tumour xenograft models of Triple-Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC); and
- This combination immunotherapy approach shows that blinatumomab can be redirected to potently target solid tumours with onCARlytics.
“Blinatumomab, sold under the brand name Blincyto, is a bispecific T-cell engager antibody that targets CD19 and is used to treat a particularly acute form of leukemia,” Imugene CEO and managing director Dr Leslie Chong said.
“Now combining this with our novel CD19-expressing onCARlytics, we are pleased to see an ability to deliver an outstanding impact including tumour killing and higher tumour regression, which will ideally lead to improved outcomes for cancer sufferers.
“The results certainly support further development of the combination and program.”
How the CF33-CD19 onCARlytic virus works
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