BioCentury
ARTICLE | Distillery Therapeutics

Cancer

February 13, 2019 1:31 PM UTC

Mouse studies suggest inhibiting CD95 could help enhance the efficacy of adoptive T cell therapies for melanoma and ALL. In a mouse model of melanoma, adoptive transfer of T cells transduced with a dominant-negative mutant CD95 encoded in a retroviral vector decreased tumor growth and increased survival compared with T cells transduced with empty vector. In a syngeneic model of B cell ALL, T cells expressing the mutant CD95 decreased the number of leukemia cells in the bone marrow. Also in the ALL model, anti-CD19 CAR T cells transduced with the retroviral vector encoding dominant-negative mutant CD95 increased survival compared with CD19-targeting CAR T cells transduced with empty vector. Next steps could include testing the strategy in models of other solid tumors and hematologic malignancies.

Apogenix AG and Canbridge Life Sciences Ltd. have asunercept, a fusion protein consisting of the extracellular domain of CD95 fused to the Fc region of human IgG that inhibits CD95's interactions with its ligand, in Phase II testing for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). Apogenix also has the product in Phase I testing for myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and solid tumors...

BCIQ Target Profiles

CD19

Fas receptor (CD95)