NorthWest Biotherapeutics Inc (NWBO)

[Lykiri]

Flipper44,

Thank you. Good summary.

I agree that the use of 5-ALA-FIGR (Topical 5-aminolevulinic acid - Fluorescence image guided surgical resection.) is a good tool for improving the immunogenicity of cancer cells (Immunogenic apoptosis and the exposure on the plasma membrane of DAMPs = Damage associated molecular pattern) to use them as an antigen cargo in the development of dendritic cell (DC) vaccines.

I wonder if Fraunhofer improved the manufacturing process to obtain a more immunogenic DCvax-L?

I hope that a DCvax-L that is more immunogenic can induce an immunostimulatory shift in the brain immune environment, leading to reduced numbers of regulatory T cells and increased prevalence of Th1, CTLs, and Th17 lymphocytes. Anyway that's what Hyp-PDT-TCL-loaded DC vaccines do.

hypericin-based photodynamic therapy (Hyp-PDT)
tumor cell lysate (TCL)
regulatory T cells (also called Tregs) are T cells which have a role in regulating or suppressing other cells in the immune system.
Cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL)
T helper cells (Th cells) = a type of lymphocytes that play an important role in the immune system.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5855816/

FRAUNHOFER

PROJECT EXAMPLES P.27

Manufacture of the immunotherapeutic DCVax®-L for brain tumor patients.

The manufacturing process for the immunotherapeutic DCVax®-L has been optimized and implemented as part of a clinical trial conducted by American biotech company Northwest Biotherapeutics, Inc. The therapeutic approach is based on autologous dendritic cells and aims to improve the treatment of glioblastoma, a particularly aggressive type of brain tumor.
https://www.izi.fraunhofer.de/content/dam/izi/en/documents/Publications/AnnualReport_IZI_2017_short.pdf