ROCKVILLE, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Last week results from a study conducted by investigators in the laboratory of Duane Mitchell, M.D., Ph.D., director of the University of Florida Brain Tumor Immunotherapy Program and co-director of the Preston A. Wells, Jr. Center for Brain Tumor Therapy, were presented at the 2017 Society for NeuroOncology (SNO) Annual Meeting. In the talk, entitled "Enhanced T Cell Tumor Recognition Using Dendritic Cells Pulsed with Chimeric RNAs Encoding Full-Length LAMP-1 Fusion Constructs," investigators shared findings of a study that incorporates the CMV targeting technology that Dr. Mitchell is a co-inventor of with Immunomic Therapeutics' investigational LAMP-Vax™ technology.
Dr. Mitchell's study, led by Dr. Changlin Yang, and co-authors Anjelika Dechkovskaia, Jeffrey Drake, Fernanda Guimaraes, Paul Kubilis and Jianping Huang, compared the use of a full-length LAMP fusion RNA construct (flLAMP-pp65) with the short peptide chimeric antigen (shLAMP-pp65) in in vitro studies to stimulate T cells from healthy volunteers and patients with glioblastoma (GBM). The study's results demonstrated an enhanced T cell expansion, activation, and antigen-specific killing of GBM tumor cells with use of the full-length LAMP-1 pp65 chimeric RNA pulsed DCs.
An earlier randomized and blinded pilot clinical trial indicated that a vaccination of autologous dendritic cells (DC) pulsed with RNA encoding the CMV antigen pp65 and LAMP in patients with newly-diagnosed GBM patients was associated with prolonged survival (Mitchell et al., Nature 2015).
In these studies, Immunomic Therapeutics’ investigational LAMP technology was combined with CMV technology, which was part of an exclusive license, announced earlier this year, between Immunomic and Annias Immunotherapeutics. LAMP-Vax, Immunomic's technology platform is a nucleic acid platform focused on intracellular targeting that has the potential to complement other cancer immunotherapies, including cancer vaccination approaches.
"We are encouraged by the results of Dr. Mitchell's studies and honored to be collaborating with him. We look forward to the continued studies employing this approach, including his ongoing Phase II clinical study,” stated Teri Heiland, Ph.D., Immunomic Therapeutics' senior vice president of Research and Development. "This is an example of how the investigational LAMP-Vax technology platform, in combination, could contribute to the growing cancer immunotherapy field.”
The phase II randomized clinical trial, the “ATTAC II,” (funded by the National Cancer Institute, clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT02465268) is a randomized, blinded and placebo-controlled trial of CMV RNA-Pulsed dendritic cells with tetanus-diphtheria toxoid vaccine in patients with newly-diagnosed glioblastoma. Immunomic Therapeutics is sponsoring a travel fund for patients and potential patients enrolling in the ATTAC II Trial.
About LAMP-Vax
ITI’s investigational LAMP-Vax platform is thought to work by encoding the Lysosomal Associated Membrane Protein, an endogenous protein in humans. In this way, ITI’s vaccines (DNA or RNA) have the potential to utilize the body’s natural biochemistry to develop a broad immune response including antibody production, cytokine release and critical immunological memory. This approach could put LAMP-Vax technology at the crossroads of immunotherapies in a number of illnesses, including cancer, allergy and infectious diseases. LAMP is currently being employed in Phase II clinical trials as a cancer immunotherapy. ITI is also collaborating with academic centers and biotechnology companies to study the use of LAMP in cancer types of high mortality, including cases where there are limited treatment options like glioblastoma and acute myeloid leukemia. ITI believes that these early clinical studies may provide a proof of concept for LAMP-Vax therapy in cancer, and if successful, set the stage for future studies, including combinations in these tumor types and others. Preclinical data is currently being developed to explore whether LAMP nucleic acid constructs may amplify and activate the immune response in highly immunogenic tumor types and be used to create immune responses to tumor types that otherwise do not provoke an immune response.
About Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc.
Immunomic Therapeutics, Inc. (ITI) is a privately-held clinical stage biotechnology company pioneering the study of the LAMP-based nucleic acid immunotherapy platforms. These investigational technologies have the potential to alter how we use immunotherapy for cancer, allergies and animal health. ITI has entered into a significant licensing agreement with Astellas Pharma Inc. to explore the use of LAMP-Vax, an immunotherapy platform, for use in the prevention and treatment of allergic diseases. For information about ITI and LAMP Technology, visit www.immunomix.com.
