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Imugene pre-clinical data demonstrates enhanced anti-tumour activity against liver cancers

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By Imelda Cotton - 
Imugene ASX IMU pre-clinical data anti-tumour activity liver cancers American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy
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Clinical stage immuno-oncology company Imugene (ASX: IMU) has presented pre-clinical data at the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy’s annual meeting to demonstrate enhanced anti-tumour activity in vivo against hepatocellular liver cancers.

The abstract investigates the combination of Imugene’s onCARlytics technology and Eureka Therapeutics’ Artemis cell receptor platform in the most primary type of liver cancer and sixth most common cancer worldwide.

It showed that the combination strategy can be applied to otherwise target-less tumours such as hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) as well as a wide array of solid cancers as an effective immunotherapy approach.

HCC occurs most often in people with chronic liver disease, such as cirrhosis caused by hepatitis B or hepatitis C infection.

Currently, there are few systemic therapies available for patients with advanced disease in addition to traditional treatments including ablation, surgical resection and liver transplantation.

Impressive outcomes

Imugene said the CD19-targeting chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy had demonstrated “impressive clinical outcomes” in blood cancers however translating the therapy to solid-tumour cancers has met with various challenges including the immunosuppressive microenvironment, on-target off-tumour toxicity and antigen heterogeneity.

To date, CAR-T cell therapies against HCC have shown nominal efficacy in clinical trials and there is a proven need for more novel and innovative therapeutic approaches.

Imugene’s onCARlytics in combination with Artemis T cells differentiate from CAR-T cells with lower CRS risks, better tumour infiltration and higher T cell persistence in pre-clinical studies, making them better cell therapy candidates for solid tumours.

Tax refund

In April, Imugene announced it had received a $12.6 million research and development tax refund from the Australian government which it will use to pursue ongoing development of its immuno-oncology therapies.

The portfolio comprises oncolytic virotherapies (VAXINIA or CF33) and multiple B-cell vaccine candidates as well as emerging technologies including onCARlytics (CF33-CD19) in combination with CAR-Ts, or bispecifc antibody targeting CD19 for solid tumours.

The therapies are designed to harness a patient’s immune system to help it fight cancer.