Cimeio Therapeutics Announces Publication in Nature Demonstrating That CD45 ADC and Shielded HSCs Represent a Potentially Universal Therapy for Blood Cancers
May 22 2024 - 8:00AM
Business Wire
-- Selective and complete eradication of
leukemic cells with an ADC targeting the pan-blood marker CD45
--
-- Engineered hematopoietic Stem Cells (HSCs)
shielded from the CD45-targeting ADC maintain full functionality
--
-- Represents a novel, potentially universal
approach to treating blood cancers --
Cimeio Therapeutics today announced a publication in Nature
showing that its CD45 antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) eradicated
aggressive leukemic cells in vivo, while hematopoiesis was fully
preserved and protected from the ADC via shielded hematopoietic
stem cells (HSCs). The findings point to a novel and potentially
universal approach to treating blood cancers.
CD45 is highly expressed on blood cancers but also on healthy
blood cells. This profile until now has prevented effective
targeting for therapeutic purposes. Now, a group led by Dr. Lukas
Jeker, and researchers at Cimeio have shown that acute myeloid
leukemia (AML) cells can be eliminated using Cimeio’s proprietary
CD45-targeting ADC. By transplanting engineered HSCs that are
shielded from the CD45-directed therapy, the CD45 ADC was safely
and effectively administered against the blood cancers.
This work is foundational for the emerging field called epitope
shielding, which enables the development of curative therapies for
patients with hematologic diseases, severe autoimmune conditions
and potentially infectious diseases such as HIV. The core patent
for epitope shielding is exclusively licensed to Cimeio by
University of Basel.
“All AML cells express CD45 but since all healthy blood cells
also express it, killing cells that express CD45 results in severe
toxicity,” said Dr. Jeker, who is the co-founder of Cimeio and
Professor of Experimental Transplantation Immunology &
Nephrology at the Basel University Hospital, Switzerland. “We
solved the problem by providing epitope-shielded HSCs, which enable
the ADC to selectively deplete cancer cells while sparing the
healthy ones.”
“We believe that this therapy could change the treatment
paradigm for patients with AML, which is a difficult-to-treat
disease with a five-year survival rate of only 25%,” said Stefanie
Urlinger, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer at Cimeio. “By protecting
a patient’s heme system from toxicity, we are able to develop new
targeted treatments previously not possible.”
Cimeio Therapeutics is developing epitope engineered cells and
paired targeted therapies for CD45 and CD117, and epitope
engineered cells for CD33, CD52, and several other heme
targets.
About Cimeio Therapeutics
Cimeio is an immunotherapy company developing Shielded-Cell
& Immunotherapy Pairs™ (SCIP), novel immunotherapies which have
the potential to transform treatment of hematologic diseases.
Cimeio develops immunotherapies, along with paired, modified
variants of naturally occurring cell surface proteins in HSCs.
These novel epitopes edited variants maintain their function but
are resistant to depletion when targeted by a paired immunotherapy
which has high affinity for the wild-type version of these
proteins. These immunotherapies have significant therapeutic
potential, which Cimeio is using to develop curative treatments for
patients with hematologic malignancies, autoimmune disorders, and
genetic diseases. Shielded Cell and Immunotherapy Pairs and SCIP
are trademarks of Cimeio Therapeutics, Inc. For more information,
please visit www.cimeio.com.
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