Gothenburg, June 11, 2024 – Elicera Therapeutics AB (publ), a clinical stage cell and gene therapy company developing next generation cancer treatments based on CAR T-cell therapies and oncolytic viruses, armed with its proprietary commercially available technology platform iTANK, announces today that the company has entered a research collaboration with Fourth Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University (CMU4). Through this agreement, the efficacy of the oncolytic virus ELC-201 will be evaluated in preclinical proof-of-concept studies across multiple solid tumor indications.
According to the collaboration agreement with CMU4, the university, under the leadership of Dr. Li Xuexin, Director of the Biomedical Innovation Center, will have access to ELC-201 to conduct preclinical proof-of-concept studies in organoids – cell collections that have an organ-like structure – derived from cancer patients. The studies aim to evaluate both the treatment efficacy and the safety profile of ELC-201 in several solid tumor types, including pancreatic cancer (PDAC), gastric cancer (GI), triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), renal cell carcinoma (RCC), and non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMBIC). The treatment efficacy will be based, among other things, on the degree of tumor cell death and the activation of immune cells in the tumor microenvironment, which will be measured using a variety of analytical methods. The researchers at China Medical University have the right to publish the results in the form of scientific articles, while Elicera Therapeutics has the right to use the data in the company’s internal project development as well as for commercialization activities, including licensing agreements.
Elicera Therapeutics is developing ELC-201, an iTANK-armed oncolytic virus that has the ability to seek out and selectively infect cancer cells. After ELC-201 infects a cancer cell, the virus reproduces to the extent that the cell membrane ruptures and the cancer cell dies. Concurrently, the iTANK molecule NAP is released, which initiates a broad activation of the body’s immune response against the entire tumor. The project is in preclinical development phase and is being evaluated against a range of different tumor targets.
“We are very pleased to have been able to establish yet another scientific collaboration to advance the development of our unique therapies. ELC-201 is an oncolytic virus that specifically infects and kills cancer cells. By arming the virus with iTANK, we also create the possibility for broad immunological activation against nearby cancer cells that the virus would not otherwise have identified. Since ELC-201 has the potential to treat many different types of solid tumors, we find this collaboration particularly interesting as we now have the opportunity to confirm the candidate’s broad potential across multiple cancer indications. We look forward to taking part in the results from the proof-of-concept studies and leveraging these in the further development of ELC-201,” says Jamal El-Mosleh, CEO of Elicera Therapeutics.
For further information, please contact:
Jamal El-Mosleh, CEO, Elicera Therapeutics AB (publ)
Phone: +46 (0) 703 31 90 51
jamal.elmosleh@elicera.com
Om ELC-201
ELC-201 är ett nästa generations onkolytiskt virus som har genmodifierats med bolagets egenutvecklade immunförstärkande plattformsteknologi, iTANK, samt med immunstimulerande faktorn 4-1BBL, som båda leder till stark aktivering av patientens endogena mördar-T-celler, vilket ger en bred parallell attack mot cancer. ELC-201 är applicerbar som behandling av de flesta cancerformer.
Om iTANK-plattformen
Den egenutvecklade och kommersiellt tillgängliga iTANK-plattformen har tagits fram i syfte att möta två av de största utmaningarna som CAR T-cellsterapier står inför vid behandling av solida tumörer: en mycket blandad uppsättning av olika tumörmåltavlor och en fientlig tumörmikromiljö. Den gentekniska metoden möjliggör produktionen av ett neutrofilaktiverande bakteriellt protein (NAP) hos CAR T-celler. Utsöndringen av NAP har visat sig kunna förstärka CAR T-cellens funktion samt framför allt aktivera ett parallellt immunsvar mot cancer via CD8+ mördar T-celler. Detta förväntas leda till en bred attack mot de flesta tumörmåltavlorna på cancercellerna. iTANK-plattformen används för att beväpna bolagets egna CAR T-cellsterapier men kan också tillämpas universellt på andra CAR T-cellsterapier under utveckling. Proof-of-concept-data publicerades i Nature Biomedical Engineering i april 2022. Publikationen med titeln “CAR T cells expressing a bacterial virulence factor trigger potent bystander antitumour responses in solid cancers” (DOI nummer: 10.1038/s41551-022-00875-5) kan hittas via följande länk: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41551-022-00875-5. Mer information om iTANK-plattformen finns här: https://www.elicera.com/technology
Om Elicera Therapeutics AB
Elicera Therapeutics AB (publ) har utvecklat den patenterade genteknikmetoden iTANK som gör det möjligt att utveckla helt nya behandlingar och förädla redan befintliga CAR T-cellsterapier mot aggressiva och återkommande cancersjukdomar. Bolagets CAR T-cellsterapier har i prekliniska studier visat en potent effekt mot solida tumörer vilka är erkänt svårbehandlade och utgör majoriteten av cancerformer. Bolaget adresserar en internationell miljardmarknad inom cellterapiutveckling genom att erbjuda utlicensiering av iTANK till flertalet aktörer inom läkemedelsindustrin. Parallellt driver Elicera Therapeutics fyra interna utvecklingsprojekt inom immunterapi som alla har potential att generera betydande intäkter i form av exklusiva licensieringsavtal. Eliceras aktie (ELIC) är noterad på Nasdaq First North Growth Market. Certifierad rådgivare är Mangold Fondkommission AB, www.mangold.se. För mer information, vänligen besök www.elicera.se