Good morning all
I don't think this has been flagged on HC yet - but it is hard to keep up with all posts. Apologies if this has already appeared on another thread, but here goes:
Assuming that anyone reading this particular thread is particularly interested in HER-vaxx - you may also be interested to see that the Medical University of Vienna team, which invented Her-vaxx and the Mimotope platform licensed to IMU, has just published a new paper on B cell immunotherapy.
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6694/14/22/5678The paper summarises their own work to date, including Her-vaxx and the trials of Her-vaxx so far. It also references the work of Prof Kaumaya *B-vaxx and PD!-vaxx). This is the first article I have seen which brings both the Vienna and the Kaumaya/Ohio work together in an analysis of B-cell immunotherapy.
The article is definitely best for science wonks - it is an academic article intended for researchers/scientists, and most of us (myself included) will find that a lot of it is way beyond our knowledge base. However - I can summarise a few standout points, as follows:
- The article highlights the advantages of B-cell immunotherapy over current commercial manufactured antibodies such as Herceptin. Specifically - minimal toxicity compared to MAbs; longer durations of response; induction of "immune memory" so that the body will recognise the cancer in future, and attack it in the same way.
- The Vienna team has developed a new version of Her-vaxx! The current version essentially mimics the action of the highly successful commercial MAb drug Herceptin (Traztuzumab). The researchers have noted that Herceptin has proved to be very successful in Her-2 positive metastatic breast cancer when used in combination with another MAb drug - Perjeta (pertuzumab). So.... they have developed a new version of Her-vaxx which contains the Mimotopes of both Herceptin/Traztuzumab AND Perjeta/Pertuzumab: "Given that, in Her-2/neu-positive metastatic breast cancer patients, the combined treatment of trastuzumab with pertuzumab has established an incredible achievement, and to broaden the binding spectrum of the induced antibodies by our vaccine, we re- cently constructed a multi-peptide B cell vaccine comprising HER-Vaxx and pertuzumab’s mimotope." (See final paragraph of p. 9). They have already tested it in mice, with excellent results: "Active immunization with the multi-peptide vaccine combining HER-Vaxx and the mimotope of pertuzumab resulted in a significant reduction of lung metastasis formation." (p. 10). Comment: This further demonstrates the power of the Mimotope platform. It can be used to churn out Mimotopes of any successful MAb drug.
- The Vienna team has also developed a Mimotope of Bavencio/Avelumab! "We recently used avelumab as one of the therapeutic mAbs targeting PD-L1 to identify its mimotope." (p.10). Sound familiar? Imugene has a clinical supply agreement with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany (ETR: MRK) and Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) to evaluate the safety and efficacy of Her-vaxx in combination with Bavencio in a Phase 2 clinical trial against gastric cancer. This is the neoHERIZON trial. So potentially, if that trial is successful, Imugene could duplicate the result by using Her-vaxx and the B-cell mimotope of Bavencio. The Mimotope platform has the potential for Imugene to imitate all the successful Mobs currently on market.....
There is a lot more in the article, including a brief summary of the work carried out by Prof Kaumaya at the University of Ohio and now licensed to Imugene - B-vaxx and PD1-vaxx get a big mention, and Prof K's new anti-PDL1 drug, and the authors seem very positive about the prospects of a good result in the combination of Her-vaxx with an anti-PD1, currently being investigated in the combo trial of Her-vaxx with Keytruda. Of course - assuming the PD1-vaxx trial concludes in success, the obvious next step would be Her-vaxx in combo with PD1-vaxx.
In short, the B cell Immunotherapy technology is incredibly powerful, with major advantages over current successful MAb drugs which have multi billion $ markets. Imugene's task is to methodically test the clinical effectiveness as well. Assuming similar or superior clinical effectiveness (and the probability that the effectiveness will be longer lasting than MAbs), the vastly improved safety profile of the B cell approach would make it the obvious replacement for MAbs.
And now we see the Mimotope platform being used to further expand the range of targets - with Mimotopes developed for Perjeta/Pertuzumab and Bavencio/Avelumab.
It will be wonderful if CF33/OnCARlytics in combo with CD19 targeting drugs becomes the "go to" treatment for solid tumours, but don't underestimate the potential for the B cell immunotherapy approach to also transform cancer treatment.
Cheers
Dave
(20min delay)