Oncology - Immune Regulation

In the approximately 25 years since the development of the first therapeutic antibodies used in cancer treatment, clinical researchers have sought a wide range of methods to stimulate the immune system of patients with cancer in an attempt to treat this disease. 

Therapeutic antibodies which selectively bind to cancer cells and signal to a patient’s immune system that these cells are foreign and should be destroyed have shown clinical effectiveness but this clinical utility has been severely limited by the profoundly immunosuppressive activity of the tumor itself.  Once tumors reach a certain size, they become incredibly effective at developing strategies for evading immune detection and this immune evasion limits the effectiveness of therapeutic antibodies.

4-Antibody is utilizing its powerful discovery technology to generate antibodies that target key molecules actively engaged in the process of immune evasion by the tumor. Two such target molecules are GITR (glucocorticoid induced tumor necrosis factor receptor family related gene) and OX40 (a member of the TNFR-superfamily of receptors).  Both are involved in important pathways of T-cell activation and regulation.  Therapeutic antibodies to these targets are expected to contribute to the re-activation of a patient’s immune system even in the presence of significant attempts by the tumor to evade immune detection.