ID-LV + GLA

A Synergistic Platform for Cancer Immunotherapy

Perhaps the most exciting aspect of our scientific platform is the mechanistical synergy of the two main technologies, ID-LV and GLA, when targeting the same antigen to the dendritic cell. This means that not only can each be developed as separate immunotherapies, but also as a combination cancer vaccine product that focuses on generating the most effective and long-lasting pool of tumor-specific CTLs.

Having identified CTLs as tumor-destroying agents generated by dendritic cells, there are strong indications that the generation and maintenance of effective tumor-specific immunity can be achieved in the following manner:

• ID-LV will generate de novo CTLs against the tumor antigen expressed by the vector, and obviously known to be expressed in the patient’s tumor.
• The TLR4 agonist will activate and mature dendritic cells while providing a Th1 cytokine environment and, when combined with the same protein antigen as that expressed in the ID-LV, generate antigen-specific CD4 T lymphocytes that will sustain the same tumor antigen-specific CTLs.

Antigen specific priming of Th1 CD4 T cells with recombinant protein antigens+GLA significantly enhances the magnitude of the antigen-specific cytolytic CD8 T cell response induced with ID-LV expressing the same antigen used as the recombinant protein antigens in combination with GLA.

Importantly, broad, durable and functional Ag-specific Ab, CTL and CD4 T cell immunity can be maintained by subsequent boosting with GLA adjuvanted recombinant protein antigen vaccines.

The sequential combination of these two proprietary and cutting edge technologies (in the vaccine argot defined as heterologous prime-boost) reflect a well thought scientific rationale that is validated in animal models, and which is expected to overcome many of the shortcomings of previous attempts at cancer vaccines.