Inceptor Bio LLC and Shenzhen Grit Biotechnology Co. Ltd. have established a strategic partnership to advance IB-T101, a CAR T therapy targeting solid tumors.

B7H3 is a pan-cancer antigen considered a promising target for immunotherapy. However, targeting B7H3 using bispecific T-cell engagers (BiTEs) presents the problem of systemic toxicity.

The lack of acute myeloid leukemia-specific antigens is one of the challenges for targeted immunotherapy together with on-target off-tumor toxicities due to the expression of the target in normal myeloid cells. A subset of T cells – Vδ2 T-cells – which represent ~5% of the T-cell population in healthy donors, are seen as part of emerging immunotherapeutic strategies.

Claudin 18.2 (CLDN18.2) is a member of the claudin family and is overexpressed in gastric, gastroesophageal junction and pancreatic cancer, among others. Researchers from Elevation Oncology Inc. recently presented preclinical efficacy data on the combination of EO-3021, an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) targeting CLDN18.2, with VEGFR-2 or PD-1 inhibitors in models of gastric adenocarcinoma.

Cancer and autoimmunity are “often thought of as being at opposite ends of the immune response,” Ana Anderson told her audience at a joint meeting of the NIH’s Office of Autoimmune Disease Research and Office of Research in Women’s Health earlier this month. Cancer, that line of reasoning goes, arises when the immune system is not good enough at recognizing harmful autoantigens. Autoimmunity arises when it is hypervigilant, mistaking harmless autoantigens for problematic ones and going on the attack.

Elevation Oncology Inc. has nominated EO-1022 as its HER3 antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) development candidate for the treatment of solid tumors that express HER3.

Previous research suggested that gram-negative bacteria may hold potential for cancer immunotherapy because they contain agonists for multiple immune receptors.