Category Archives: Immunology & Immunotherapy

Anti-GARP: Combatting Treg Cells and TGF-β in the Tumor Microenvironment

AbbVie has recently licensed rights to a monoclonal antibody discovered by Argenx, ARGX-115, paying $20MM up-front and up to $625MM in milestones based on development, approval, and commercial performance. This monoclonal antibody targets a central player in the complex tumor microenvironment – the regulatory T-cell (Treg). Continue reading

Mutational burden biomarker – not just mismatch repair deficiency

We have discussed mutational burden previously on this blog – in essence, the concept is that tumors with more mutations are more visible to the immune system because the generation of new novel antigenic epitopes allows for adaptive immune responses even when previous adaptive antigen-specific immune responses have been blunted by PD-1 expression. Continue reading

Adenosine – a critical checkpoint in the tumor microenvironment

The tumor microenvironment (TME) includes a host of cells (mesenchymal, immune, vascular), cytokines, and other signaling molecules that serve to abrogate the innate and adaptive immune responses against the tumor. This is appropriate to maintain tissue homeostasis, and to prevent autoimmunity after the rogue cancer cells have been eliminated. Cancer cells co-opt many of these pathways to terminate the effective immune response so that they are not wiped out, rather, proliferate, invade, metastasize and kill, Continue reading

SEMA4D/CD100, a novel target for immune-oncology

Semaphorins are secreted, transmembrane, and glycosylphosphatidylinisotol-anchored glycoproteins that are important in cell to cell signaling. Humans have 20 semaphorins, the most of any species analyzed to date. Their role was originally identified in the development of the nervous system and axonal guidance. Since then, they have been shown to be important in the development and functioning of many tissues including: Continue reading

Ubiquitin specific protease 7 – a good target for cancer therapy

Ubiquitin specific protease 7 (USP7) is a deubiquitinase, an enzyme that removes ubiquitin a 76 amino acid protein that is added onto lysines in the target protein. Proteins that are mono, or poly (up to 10 residues), ubiquitinated are taken to the proteasome for destruction. Continue reading

The levels of immune cells within ovarian cancer tumors correlate with survival

Researches with the Ovarian Tumor Tissue Analyses Consortium analyzed the CD8+ (cytotoxic T-cell) content of tumors from 5,500 patients and compared them with clinical outcome. The analysis was large enough to allow for comparison by histologic subtype – endometrioid, clear cell, mucinous, and low-grade serous ovarian cancer, as well as high-grade serous ovarian cancer. Included in the sample were 3,200 high grade serous ovarian cancers. Continue reading

Pancreatic cancer – early detection, immune response, and infection-based resistance

Approximately 1.6 percent of men and women will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at some point during their lifetime. In 2014, an estimated 64,668 patients were living with the disease. The five-year survival for pancreatic cancer is 8.2% and it is projected to be the second leading cause of death due to cancer (behind lung cancer) in the US by the year 2030. For good reason, then, November is Pancreatic Awareness Month. Several recent research items are of particular interest to us. Continue reading

Using a blood test to select patients most likely to respond to checkpoint therapy

Checkpoint therapy with PD-(L)1 and CTLA4-directed monoclonal antibodies has shown to be extremely effective for many patients with a variety of tumors. PD-1 testing, alone, however, are lacking in selecting patients for therapy – up to 17% of patients who do not meet criteria for PD-1 positivity respond to treatment, and many patients with PD-1 tumors do not respond well to checkpoint therapy. Continue reading

MET – an ideal target for antibody drug conjugate therapy, plus nivolumab

MET is a gene that encodes a receptor tyrosine kinase that is activated upon binding with hepatocyte growth factor (HGF, or Scatter Factor). Specifically, MET is a Continue reading