Yes they partnered with Oncs last Nov to test combination with immunopulse.
SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--OncoSec Medical Inc. (OTCQB: ONCS), a company developing DNA-based intratumoral cancer immunotherapies, today announced a preclinical collaboration with Plexxikon Inc., a member of the Daiichi Sankyo Group and leader in the discovery and development of novel small molecule pharmaceuticals, to test the combination of Plexxikon’s selective CSF-1R inhibitor with OncoSec’s Immunopulse pIL-12.
OncoSec’s Chief Scientific Officer, Robert H. Pierce, M.D., said: “Plexxikon is on the cutting edge of developing potent, highly-selective small molecule inhibitors of CSF-1R, a key cell surface receptor, which controls macrophage development and function. Intratumoral macrophages and other related cell types, like myeloid-derived suppressor cells, can be strongly immunosuppressive and block anti-tumor immunity. Given our understanding of IL-12 as a potent driver of immunogenicity and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and the potential role of tumor-resident myeloid cells in suppressing the anti-tumor effects of TILs, we hypothesize that blocking CSF-1R with Plexxikon’s selective CSF-1R inhibitor will lead to synergistic effects in the syngeneic B16.F10 melanoma mouse model.”
Mai H. Le, M.D., OncoSec’s Chief Medical Officer, commented: “Combination immune therapies, whether small molecules or biologics, will be the norm in the future. There is already considerable discussion in the oncology community regarding the need to find a rational approach to guide immune-focused combinations in the clinic. These initial studies are designed to test the rationale of our combination approach.”
Interleukin-12 (IL-12) is an inflammatory cytokine that is believed to be a master regulator of the immune system, and is important in the up-regulation of both the innate and adaptive immune responses. IL-12 is a key driver of the cascade of biological events which ultimately lead to T-cell-specific killing of cancer cells. Moreover, cytokines and chemokines induced by this pathway also increase the recruitment of inflammatory T-cells into tumors.
ImmunoPulse is a proprietary investigational electroporation device that delivers plasmid IL-12 DNA directly into tumors. By locally delivering and expressing IL-12, ImmunoPulse drives a strong anti-tumor immune response, which can lead not only to local tumor regression, but also systemic anti-tumor responses, while avoiding toxicities caused by systemic administration of IL-12. Recent interim data from OncoSec’s ongoing Phase II clinical study in melanoma have demonstrated that local delivery of IL-12 by electroporation increases the production of cytokines like IFN-?, resulting in increased expression of genes related to the processes required for cytotoxic CD8+ T cells to recognize and kill cancer cells.
About PLX’s highly-specific small molecule inhibitors of CSF-1R
Plexxikon is currently exploring the role of CSF-1R-targeted immune therapy as a sensitizer to chemo- and radiation-therapy, in addition to its potential to augment response to complementary immunotherapies.
