New antitumor vaccine shows great promise
Celldex Therapeutics has published the results of a phase I clinical trial of the CDX-1401 anticancer vaccine involving patients with late-stage solid tumors. The data obtained indicate that the drug causes the formation of a pronounced immune response and demonstrate an improvement in clinical indicators.
CDX-1401 is a new generation antitumor vaccine, which is a ready–made drug designed to activate the patient's immune system against tumors expressing the NY-ESO-1 marker. The active ingredient of the vaccine is human monoclonal antibodies specific to the DEC-205 dendritic cell receptor associated with the tumor antigen NY-ESO-1. By selectively delivering NY-ESO-1 to dendritic cells, CDX-1401 induces an immune response against tumors expressing this antigen.
The aim of the study was to evaluate the safety, immunogenicity and clinical activity of different doses of the vaccine used in combination with Toll-like receptor agonists resiquimod (TLR7/8) and/or hyltonol (Poly ICLC, TLR3). It was attended by 45 patients with late-stage resistant to all available therapeutic protocols of tumors.
The therapy was well tolerated by all patients and did not cause severe side effects when using all the analyzed dosages. Most often, patients complained of reactions at the injection site, weakness, nausea and chills.
At the same time, the use of different doses of the vaccine and its various combinations with adjuvants caused the development of a humoral and cellular immune response against NY-ESO-1 in all patients with tumors expressing this antigen. As a result, the condition of 13 participants stabilized for an average of 6.7 months (2.4-13.4 months). In two patients, the tumors decreased by about 20%. In 6 out of 8 patients who underwent therapy with Toll-like receptor agonists a month after the vaccine, there was a significant reduction in tumor size.
The researchers consider the use of the vaccine developed by them in the treatment of malignant tumors to be a very promising approach and hope to start the next stage of clinical research this year.
Article by Madhav V. Dhodapkar et al. Induction of Antigen-Specific Immunity with a Vaccine Targeting NY-ESO-1 to the Dendritic Cell Receptor DEC-205 is published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
Evgeniya Ryabtseva
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of Celldex Therapeutics:
Celldex's Phase 1 Study of CDX-1401 Published in Science Translational Medicine.
21.04.2014