SAN DIEGO and BASEL, Switzerland, April 09, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bright Peak Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing multifunctional immunotherapies for cancer and autoimmune disease, today announced the presentation of new data characterizing the mechanisms of action, and potent preclinical antitumor activity of BPT567, a cis-signaling, PD1-IL18 immunoconjugate, at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting being held on April 4-10, 2024, in San Diego, CA.
Bright Peak has leveraged its world-class protein engineering capabilities to functionally optimize the master cytokine IL-18, by creating an IL-18 binding protein-resistant molecule and integrating it with PD-1 checkpoint blockade to create BPT567, a first-in-class PD1-IL18 immunoconjugate. Antibody-cytokine conjugates leverage orthogonal mechanisms of action (MoA) in one molecule to induce potent antitumor immune responses. PD-1-targeting conjugates are of particular interest since they may preferentially target antigen-experienced PD-1+ CD8+ T cells enriched in the tumor microenvironment (TME) while simultaneously blocking the PD-(L)1 pathway and inducing potent cytokine receptor stimulation in the same CD8+ T cell in cis (cis-signaling).
BPT567 is designed to coordinately engage antigen-experienced Teff cells that are known to co-express both PD-1 and the IL-18 receptor. These T-cells have been reported to be highly cytotoxic and enriched in the tumor microenvironment, and as a PD1-IL18 immunoconjugate, BPT567 is designed uniquely to target these cells, said Jon Wigginton, M.D., President of Research and Development of Bright Peak Therapeutics.
Dr. Wigginton continued Characterization of the biological activity of BPT567 in preclinical tumor models has demonstrated that BPT567 indeed can more selectively target the potent proinflammatory effects of IL-18 to the tumor, with more limited activation of immune cells in the periphery. It is anticipated that this profile could ultimately contribute to an improved risk-benefit profile for BPT567 in the clinical setting.
The poster will be made available for viewing on Bright Peaks website upon presentation at the AACR 2024 Annual Meeting (www.brightpeaktx.com).