Dendreon utilizes pervasive antigen telomerase in new cancer immunotherapy
Preclinical results show significant survival benefit
Dendreon Corporation today announced it will present research highlighting the application of the company's new immunotherapy technology to the widely expressed cancer antigen, telomerase. Results of preclinical animal studies have demonstrated that the approach is capable of inducing tumor rejection in vivo. The research is scheduled for presentation this weekend by Reiner Laus, M.D., vice president of research and development at Dendreon, at the American Association of Immunologists 90th Anniversary Meeting in Denver, Colorado.
The telomerase antigen is expressed in nearly all human cancers, making it an appealing target for cancer immunotherapy. Dendreon researchers have applied the company's proprietary alternative reading frame (ARF) technology to telomerase. The ARF technology uses, as a target for cancer vaccines, abnormal peptides produced by cells as they translate genes into proteins. Researchers at Dendreon have discovered that ARF sequences are potent targets for cancer vaccines and have applied for a patent covering the compositions and methods that relate to ARF technology.
Study details Utilizing Dendreon's proprietary ARF technology, immunogens from telomerase were derived and used to immunize mice. Mice were then inoculated with tumors that expressed telomerase. The mice treated with the telomerase vaccine lived up to 50 percent longer than their non-treated counterparts (p=<0.01). Additionally, two out of 10 telomerase-treated mice remained tumor free indefinitely. No treatment-related toxicities were observed.
In a related study, Dendreon researchers have demonstrated that the ARF technology is applicable to Her-2 positive tumors as well.
"Telomerase is an attractive therapeutic target due to its expression rates in a wide range of tumor types, and we are pleased to have demonstrated that we can elicit in vivo tumor protection by applying our new ARF technology to telomerase," said Laus. "We believe telomerase-targeted immunotherapies will potentially play an important role in future product candidates."
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