IMV Inc. presents preclinical research for immunotherapy program at AACR

IMV (IMV) announced that preclinical research presented at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019 demonstrated how the mechanism of action of IMV’s proprietary DPX technology can enhance a broad spectrum of immune cell infiltration into tumors, which included T cells, Natural Killer cells, and macrophages. Analyses also revealed the differentiated characteristics of the immune cell responses and the potential implications for enhanced anti-tumor efficacy. In the poster titled, T-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding analysis of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes after treatment with a T cell activating therapy identifies a unique population of recruited CD8+ T cells and novel options for combination immunotherapy, IMV researchers used specialized data analytics to examine how DPX-based agents, when combined with cyclophosphamide, induced T cells to infiltrate tumors and attack cancerous cells. The study closely examined the types of immune cell responses and how and why they were able to affect disease. The data indicated that this approach stimulated the infiltration of a broad base of immune cells into tumors, including T cells, NK cells, and macrophages. The specific T cell population that moved into tumors could be grouped based on the co-expression of different checkpoint molecules such as PD-1 and Tim-3. However, those stimulated to infiltrate tumors generally did not express CTLA-4. Researchers also found that combining DPX/CPA treatments with a CTLA-4-blocking antibody increased efficacy in controlling tumor growth in the animal models. The data suggested that this result was due to the antibodies acting on T cells present in the tumors, rather than those induced by treatment. This finding contrasts previously published studies with anti-PD-1 combinations in which treatment directly enhanced DPX-induced T cell responses. IMV’s current clinical program includes multiple phase 2 studies assessing the safety and efficacy of its lead candidate, DPX-Survivac, in combination with mCPA and Merck’s (MRK) checkpoint inhibitor, Keytruda.

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