Immuno:Shield- a broad checkpoint inhibitor for cancer immunotherapy

Cellmover will with this project develop a shield (Immuno:Shield) that will enable more efficient killing of cancer cells by immune cells. Immune cells have the ability to kill cancer cells, but cancer cells in established tumors have a wide range of defense strategies designed to circumvent being killed by immune cells. Among these strategies are inhibitory signals used by the cancer cells to shut down activity of the immune cells. This problem has been successfully tackled by checkpoint inhibitors. Checkpoint inhibitors are antibody therapeutics that have revolutionized cancer treatment. Checkpoint inhibitors are generally directed at only one inhibitory target. Immuno:Shield is designed to shut down several inhibitory pathways, and thus provide a broader shield against multiple inhibitory input. We have during this period established several screening assays for testing specificy of our candidate molecule and also started testing its effect in immune cells in vitro.

The underlying idea is a broadly acting checkpoint inhibitor for cancer therapy (Immuno:Shield). Current state-of-the-art checkpoint inhibitors target single receptors at a time such as PD-1 and/or CTLA-4. Although these inhibitors have disrupted cancer treatment, the therapy is generally limited to patients that express relevant markers. We will broaden the applicability of checkpoint therapy by developing a checkpoint inhibitor that will allow treatment of a wider range of cancer patients. Cellmover will develop a biologic drug called Immuno:Shield that will block the action from several different inhibitory receptors at once. The project shall make Immuno:Shield ready for GMP compliance process and documentation for applying for approval of clinical phase I. The research will focus sufficient selectivity, affinity, and specificity, and at the same time the physio-chemical attributes necessary (stability, bio-availability) in addition to ADME and toxicity studies. The global sales figures for immune checkpoint therapy amounts to more than 50 billion USD by 2025, assuming an annual growth rate between 17 and 20 %. Achieving only a small fraction of this market will provide substantial revenue and profit.