Immunetune Publishes Preclinical Data on Novel Adjuvant in the Journal Vaccine
LEIDEN, the Netherlands, February 23, 2022 — Immunetune, a preclinical-stage biotech developing next-generation DNA vaccines against cancer and infectious diseases, announced today the publication of preclinical data on its novel adjuvant in the scientific journal Vaccine. The published findings underline the ability of Immunetune’s proprietary adjuvant PyroVant™ to increase the immune response against its neoantigen cancer vaccine and the resulting profound impact on tumor growth and survival.
The publication on PyroVant™ in the journal Vaccine describes the development of a novel, first-in-class genetic adjuvant that greatly improves immune responses elicited by DNA cancer vaccines. Unlike other adjuvants, this DNA-encoded adjuvant induces pyroptosis, a form of inflammatory cell death that results in the release of a plethora of inflammatory molecules that together attract and stimulate immune cells crucial for the generation of an anti-tumor T cell response. When given simultaneously with a DNA vaccine encoding tumor antigens, PyroVant™ increases tumor-specific T cell numbers up to 8-fold, in a dose-dependent fashion. Subsequently, in a preclinical model of melanoma, the addition of PyroVant™ to this DNA vaccine significantly delayed tumor growth and increased survival.
“It is important to have these results peer-reviewed by the scientific community and share our mechanistic insights into this first-in-class genetic adjuvant to increase the potential impact of cancer vaccines,” said Jeroen van Bergen, Chief Scientific Officer of Immunetune. “We are especially excited to have incorporated PyroVant™ in our neoantigen cancer vaccine NeoVAC, which is currently moving towards clinical development.”
The experiments were performed in close collaboration with the Tumor Immunology group (Prof. Ossendorp) of the Department of Immunology at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) in the Netherlands. Immunetune has submitted a patent application on PyroVant™ and has recently completed GLP toxicity studies of its DNA-based cancer vaccines in combination with PyroVant™. These studies showed that both vaccine and PyroVant™ were well tolerated with no test article-related observations on survival, body weight and clinical pathology across the toxicity and biodistribution studies. Immunetune is now moving its lead cancer vaccine NeoVAC towards clinical studies.
The full publication is titled ‘Pyroptosis-inducing active caspase-1 as a genetic adjuvant in anti-cancer DNA vaccination’ and can be accessed on the website of the journal Vaccine here.
About Immunetune
Immunetune is a preclinical-stage biotech developing next-generation DNA vaccines against cancer and infectious diseases. Its proprietary set of technologies allow the rapid, cell-free production of personalized cancer vaccines encoding multiple (neo-)antigens in synthetic, linear DNA with improved immunogenicity through its unique PyroVant™ adjuvant. Its lead cancer vaccine has achieved preclinical Proof of Concept in animal studies and has completed GLP toxicity studies, with the aim to initiate clinical studies in 2022. Immunetune’s pipeline further consists of infectious disease vaccines, including a pan-corona DNA vaccine, targeting antigens conserved across multiple strains of coronaviruses for global pandemic readiness, currently in preclinical testing.
For more information, please contact:
Sijme Zeilemaker
Chief Executive Officer
Telephone: +31 71 3322 388
E-mail: info@immunetune.com
