1:38AM Nektar Therapeutics reports positive preclinical data for NKTR-214, an investigational cancer immunotherapy targeting the il-2 receptor complex (NKTR) 10.50 : Co presents positive preclinical data for NKTR-214, a novel cancer immunotherapy which targets the IL-2 receptor complex. NKTR-214 is a new immunocytokine that is being developed as a potential treatment for multiple cancers. NKTR-214 targets the IL-2 receptor complex through selective receptor binding to the IL2Rb subtype. Activation of the IL2Rb subtype promotes tumor killing by the body's own immune system.
In the preclinical data presented at AACR, NKTR-214 exhibits differentiated IL-2 receptor binding which results in significantly altered immune cell populations in the tumor microenvironment compared to the clinically validated IL-2 protein therapy, aldesleukin. Specifically, NKTR-214 maintains high affinity for the IL-2 receptor subunit beta, which activates tumor-killing T cells within the tumor microenvironment. At the same time, NKTR-214 exhibits up to 100-fold reduced affinity to the IL-2 receptor subunit alpha-beta, which activates immuno-suppressive regulatory T-cells. In a well-validated animal model of melanoma, NKTR-214 demonstrated significantly improved dosing, at once every 9 days as compared to twice a day dosing with aldesleukin.
