Dr Fabio Palombo - Cancer Vaccine group leader at Takis - presented at Boston:
Developing a neoantigen cancer vaccine strategy by plasmid DNA and electroporation
Cancer vaccines based on neoantigens have rapidly reached the stage of clinical trials. In collaboration with Biogem, Takis Biotech has started a couple of years ago a research program exploring Cancer Neoantigens as potential targets for DNA vaccination.
Dr Fabio Palombo, declared: "We have explored the use of naked DNA delivered by electroporation (EP). A pipeline for neoantigen prediction was developed and selected neoantigens inserted in a proprietary plasmid (TK1). Intramuscular delivery of the neoantigen-expressing vector by EP was effective in inducing strong and persistent polyspecific immune responses (CD8+ IFN-g+ TNF-a+) and protecting preclinical models from tumor occurrence."
"The high level of induced immune responses as well as the impact on tumor growth support the development of this technology into a phase I clinical trial. Takis is willing to discuss the neoantigen platform in order to initiate a clinical trial in melanoma and lung cancer patients." - stated Luigi Aurisicchio, CEO/CSO at Takis.
For more info: http://neo-antigen.com/