Imugene Ltd (ASX:IMU) and Medical University Vienna have presented positive new data on the PD-1 mimotope cancer vaccine program at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) 2019 Annual Meeting.
The presentation by Dr Joshua Tobias from the Medical University Vienna was entitled ‘PD1 B cell mimotopes with functional PD1-PDL1 blocking capacity and anti-tumor activity: New strategy for a multi-level cancer immunotherapy.’
@TeamImugene and MedUni Vienna mimotope vaccines inhibit tumor growth in HER-2+ breast cancer models READ today's ASX news https://t.co/UDejcS62wj $IMU #CancerVaccine #BreastCancer #ImmunoOncology (ASX:IMU) pic.twitter.com/VRyJLdWtMY
— Imugene | Cancer Immunotherapies (@TeamImugene) April 2, 2019
Imugene’s PD-1 B-cell vaccine, known as KEY-Vaxx, aims to induce the body to produce antibodies that block PD-1 signalling, and thus produce an anticancer effect.
The research led by Professor Ursula Wiedermann from the Medical University Vienna successfully inhibited tumor growth in a syngeneic mouse model of HER-2+ breast cancer via both passive and active immunisation strategies with PD-1 targeting B-cell cancer vaccines.
READ: Imugene gets development roadmap for cancer vaccine from FDA meeting
For the active immunisation study, which is of greatest interest and potential value to cancer researchers, the surrogate vaccine derived from mouse PD-1 was able to “brake tolerance” thereby inducing a sustained antibody response to the self-protein PD-1.
Importantly, the findings provide proof of concept and validation for Imugene’s human PD-1 cancer vaccine KEY-Vaxx.