Prescient Therapeutics Ltd (ASX:PTX) revealed a novel immunotherapy adjuvant/neoadjuvant (supplementary therapy) dubbed CellPryme-A at the CAR-TCR Summit in Boston Massachusetts,the world’s largest CAR-TCR summit.
PTX designed CellPryme-A to be administered to cancer patients as an intravenous (IV) infusion in combination with cellular immunotherapy, such as CAR-T cell therapy, to address the hostile tumour microenvironment that cellular immunotherapies face.
Animal models have demonstrated CellPryme-A reduces the number of suppressive regulatory T cells surrounding solid tumours that counteract the effectiveness of CAR-T and other cancer therapies, potentially increasing the overall efficacy of these treatments.
The treatment also revealed strong tumour killing and survival outcomes in preclinical studies, with even greater effect when combined with PTX’s CAR-T manufacturing technology, CellPryme-M.
Comprehensive suite of technologies
“Prescient is delighted to finally unveil CellPryme-A, as a distinct but complementary addition to CellPryme-M, to expand our stable of cell therapy enhancements,” Prescient Therapeutics managing director and CEO Steven Yatomi-Clarke said.
“Together with Prescient’s next-generation CAR platform, OmniCAR, Prescient has placed itself enviably at the forefront of cellular immunotherapy by creating technologies that overcome the challenges facing the field.
“These challenges – which include targeting an array of antigens; post infusion control; cell exhaustion and a suppressive tumour microenvironment – simply must be overcome in order to bring this promising new class of therapies to more patients, and to conquer different malignancies.
“We now have a comprehensive suite of technologies to address all of these challenges.”
“Moreover, CellPryme-A is the latest in a portfolio of platform cell technologies that can not only create innovative programs for Prescient, but are also enabling technologies that open up third party commercialisation opportunities.
“They can be utilised separately, or together for synergistic benefit, depending on the needs of a particular cell therapy program.”
Solving unmet challenges
“Solid tumours continue to pose challenges to CAR-T therapies. It is crucial that we address the immunosuppressive contributions of regulatory T cells as they significantly inhibit the efficacy of even the best-in-class CAR-T cells,” Prescient Therapeutics senior vice president of scientific affairs, Dr Rebecca Lim said.
“The synergies between CellPryme-A and our CellPryme-M platform, gives cellular immunotherapy the best chance at success based on these animal studies.
“I envision applications beyond CAR-T given that other modalities of cellular immunotherapies like NK cells and macrophages face the same challenges when it comes to the tumour microenvironment.
“Even the proposed in vivo manufactured cellular therapies will face challenges when it comes to a Treg-rich tumour microenvironment. CellPryme-A can help solve that.”
CellPryme-A is now ready for clinical testing and can be incorporated into clinical studies of existing cell therapies.
The company has prepared Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) materials for potential partners, keen to facilitate opportunities for external collaborations and applications in enhancing Prescient’s own OmniCAR programs.