Good morning all
It's been a while since we heard anything more about OnCARlytics - apart from the ongoing mention in corporate presentations - but a new journal article appeared overnight, authored by Prof Fong, Dr Priceman and their colleagues from City of Hope.
Rather than clog up the "Media" thread or the "Multibaggers" thread I am following
@memememe 's suggestion and using the specific "Product Line" thread meme established.
The paper has been published in the
Journal of the American College of Surgeons. If that sounds strange - remember that as well as being a researcher in non-surgical Oncology Prof Fong is also a renowned Surgeon with a worldwide reputation. In fact his position at City of Hope is the Chair of the Department of Surgery. (Source:
https://www.cityofhope.org/patients/departments-and-services/surgery ). Yuman continues to develop new technology and practice in Surgery - and he publishes in that field.
Here is the title of the paper - it's quite a mouthful: "Using Oncolytic Virus to Retask CD19-Chimeric Antigen Receptor-T Cells for Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer: Toward a Universal Chimeric Antigen Receptor-T Cell Strategy for Solid Tumors"
The full version is only available to subscribers, but the Abstract online pretty much tells the story. The paper describes animal model (presumably mouse) trials of OnCARlytics and a (not named) CD19 CAR-T drug, against human Pancreatic Cancer (a human cancer xenograft, introduced into animal subjects - I am assuming mice).
The conclusion:
"Engineered CF33-CD19t effectively infects and expresses CD19t in pancreatic tumors, triggering cell killing and increased immunogenic response by CD19-CAR-T cells. Notably, CF33-CD19t can turn cold immunologic tumors hot, enabling solid tumors to be targetable by agents designed against liquid tumor antigens."
Here is the Abstract:
Source:
https://journals.lww.com/journalacs/abstract/9900/using_oncolytic_virus_to_retask_cd19_chimeric.838.aspxMy plain English explanation:
The OnCARlytics version of the CF33 Oncolytic virus works exactly as planned:
- it infects cancer cells.
- it kills cancer cells directly
- It also causes the cancer cells to express a CD19 protein on the cell surface.
- The CAR-T drug then attacks and kills the remaining cancer cells
The CD19 protein is the target used by CAR-T drugs to recognise and attack cancer cells in liquid cancers (eg Lymphoma; Leukaemia). CD 19 CAR-T drugs are very successful in attacking liquid cancers, but they don't work in solid cancers because normally CD19 does not appear on the surface of solid tumours. OnCARlytics enables the use of CAR-T drugs against solid cancer types.
Why Pancreatic Cancer? Well - it is particularly nasty and hard to treat. If it is not caught early, your chances are very poor. Currently, only 10% of people with metastatic Pancreatic Cancer survive longer than 12 months.
So this animal model trial - like earlier preclinical studies - tells us that OnCARlytics looks like another huge leap forward in the treatment of solid cancers - which is 90% of all cancer.
The OnCARlytics human clinical trial dosed the first patient (Ovarian Cancer) back on 26 October. All solid cancer types are eligible. This initial clinical trial is aimed at establishing safety and optimal biologic dose, though they will also be tracking clinical effectiveness. The combination drug they are using is Amgen's Blincyto (not actually a CAR-T, but it does target the CD19 protein). Of course we can expect that the follow up Stage 2 trial will use Imugene's own Azer-cel allogenic (off the shelf) CAR-T.
Cheers
Dave
(20min delay)
