Therapy Areas: Vaccines
Intensity Therapeutics' INT230-6 Induces Immune Activation by Intratumoral Delivery as Reported in the Peer-Reviewed Journal OncoImmunology
18 July 2019 - - The journal OncoImmunology has published results from nonclinical research conducted by US-based biotechnology company Intensity Therapeutics, Inc in partnership with the National Cancer Institute's Vaccine Branch under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA), Intensity said.
All results and data reported in the paper were generated at the NCI.
The peer-reviewed paper entitled "Intratumorally delivered formulation, INT230-6, containing potent anticancer agents induces protective T cell immunity and memory," describes the immune response induced from direct injection of Intensity's lead product candidate, INT230-6, into subcutaneously implanted murine colon and orthotopic breast tumors.
Treatment resulted in regression from baseline in 100% of tumors and complete response in up to 90% of mice.
Studies that knocked out the mouse immune cells prevented complete responses, indicating a critical role of immune cells in treatment benefit.
Mice with complete responses were protected from subcutaneous and intravenous re-challenge of the cancer, revealing that long-term immunological memory was induced by INT230-6.
Complete remission of the primary tumors was accompanied by shrinking and disappearance of a number of untreated contralateral tumors when INT230-6 was combined with checkpoint inhibitors, demonstrating not only a local but also systemic immunological effect.
INT230-6, Intensity's lead proprietary product candidate, is designed for direct intratumoral injection. The drug is comprised of two proven, potent anti-cancer agents, cisplatin and vinblastine, and a penetration enhancer molecule that helps disperse the drugs throughout tumors and diffuse into cancer cells.
INT230-6 is being evaluated in a Phase 1/2 clinical study (NCT03058289) in patients with various advanced solid tumors. In preclinical studies, INT230-6 eradicated tumors by a combination of direct tumor kill and recruitment of dendritic cells to the tumor micro-environment that induced anti-cancer T-cell activation.
Treatment with INT230-6 in in vivo models of severe cancer resulted in substantial improvement in overall survival compared to standard therapies.
Further, INT230-6 provided complete responder animals with long-term, durable protection from multiple re-inoculations of the initial cancer and resistance to other cancers.
In mouse models, INT230-6 has shown strong synergy with checkpoint blockage, including anti-PD-1 and anti-CTLA4 antibodies. INT230-6 was discovered from Intensity's DfuseRx platform.
Intensity Therapeutics is a biotechnology company developing a new immune-based approach to treat solid tumor cancers.
Intensity leverages its DfuseRx technology platform to create new, proprietary drug formulations that, following direct injection, rapidly disperse throughout a tumor and diffuse therapeutic agents into cancer cells.
Intensity's product candidates have the potential to induce an adaptive immune response that not only attacks the injected tumor, but also non-injected tumors.
INT230-6, Intensity's lead product candidate, is being evaluated in a Phase 1/2 clinical study in patients with various advanced solid tumors.
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