ImmunoCellular Therapeutics Announces Filing of Key Patent Application Relating to Cancer Stem Cell Technology
“This patent application supports our broad and growing portfolio of intellectual property. ICT-121 is an immunotherapy that targets cancer stem cells - a very exciting approach given the product’s mission of destroying cancer cells at their root as well as its proven ability in preclinical studies to be highly targeted for destroying cancer cells,” stated Manish Singh, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of IMUC. “This product may have applicability to multiple types of cancer, but our first clinical target will be glioblastoma. We anticipate filing an Investigational New Drug (IND) application next quarter to begin a Phase I clinical trial of ICT-121.”
ICT-121 is IMUC’s cancer stem cell (CSC) vaccine product candidate that consists of a peptide to stimulate a cytotoxic T-lymphocyte (CTL) response to CD133, which is generally overexpressed on the CSCs. It is designed as an “off-the-shelf” vaccine. IMUC will initially evaluate it in a Phase I clinical study for glioblastoma which the company expects to file an IND for in the third quarter of this year. While glioblastoma will be the initial target for ICT-121, CD133 is also overexpressed in colon cancer, breast cancer, liver cancer, prostate cancer, multiple myeloma and melanoma, providing many potential cancer targets for this CSC vaccine in the future.
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