Clinical stage oncology company Prescient Therapeutics Limited (ASX: PTX) reports excellent results from in silico immunogenicity testing of OmniCAR’s key binding components, SpyTag and SpyCatcher.
The company said these results substantially de-risk the entire platform and are important for progressing Prescient’s in-house programs and external collaborations with OmniCAR.
Immunogenicity testing evaluates the immune response against a new therapy, which can adversely affect safety and efficacy. In the case of CAR-T cell therapies, high levels of immunogenicity can adversely impact CAR-T cell expansion and persistence, which can impact the overall safety and clinical response of the treatment.1
The immunogenicity of OmniCAR’s binding system components – SpyTag and SpyCatcher were tested in silico by an independent US research provider to determine if either component has the potential to elicit unfavourable immune responses that could compromise the therapy.
CEO and Managing Director, Steven Yatomi-Clarke, said the results demonstrated that both SpyTag and SpyCatcher have very low immunogenicity – lower than a panel of humanised therapeutic antibodies already approved for human use and on par with circulating human antibodies. He added it is worth noting that in silicoimmunogenicity testing is widely recognised as being over-predictive as contemporary algorithms are unable to account for cellular antigen processing.
This is another incremental but important milestone that significantly de-risks the entire OmniCAR platform,” Mr Yatomi-Clarke said.
“The immunogenicity results could not have been better. In short, it gives us confidence that if these therapies are ultimately delivered to patients, that their immune systems will not impair the therapy itself.
“This is essential not only for Prescient’s three in-house OmniCAR programs, but also for potential external collaborators, who consider immunogenicity very stringently.”
“Prescient’s development plan is on schedule to deliver a number of important milestones. Together with our talented research team at Peter Mac, we are excited to progress our in- house next generation cell therapies for cancer patients.”
The development follows the successful completion of manufacturing and delivery of critical components of the OmniCAR platform including cell binders for several cancer targets and lentiviral vectors used to produce CAR-T cells.
Prescient is developing OmniCAR programmes for acute myeloid leukemia; Her2+ solid tumours, including breast, ovarian and gastric cancers; and glioblastoma multiforme (the most common form of brain cancer). In addition, Prescient has developed OmniCAR as a
platform, allowing collaborations and partnerships under licence with third parties wishing to incorporate OmniCAR to enhance their respective cell therapies.
The OmniCAR platform is based on technologies developed at the University of Pennsylvania and University of Oxford. Prescient has a worldwide licence to commercialise the technologies.
