Moderna Inc (MRNA)

[jondoeuk]

Can DCVax-L activate NK cells to eliminate cancer cells

Even if true, cancer cells can shed MICA/B as a mechanism to evade immune surveillance [1]. They can also downregulate NKG2DLs [2-3]. On top of this, TGF-b signaling converts NKs into (intermediate) type 1 innate lymphoid cells [4]. I could go on.

Can we expect a cure for cancer once CSF1R inhibitor is included?

There are TAM (sub)populations that are either less sensitive or resistant to CSF-1(R) targeted therapies. In this paper, they show that CD163hi macrophages are resistant to CSF-1 targeted therapy, and drive both primary and secondary resistance [5]. High frequency correlates with higher risk of relapse [6], predicts poor response to ICI [7], and poor survival [8-12].

BTW, it is a good idea to picture the scenario that Merck will decouple with Moderna sometime soon.

Additional trials testing MRNA's personalised neoantigen vaccine with MRK's Keytruda are planned.

Refs:
1 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33363734/
2 https://molecular-cancer.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12943-019-0956-8
3 https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6694/12/12/3827
4 https://www.nature.com/articles/ni.3800
5 https://jitc.bmj.com/content/11/3/e006433
6 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32082570/
7 https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(16)30215-X
8 https://wjso.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12957-021-02299-y
9 https://www.nature.com/articles/bjc2014446
10 https://bmccancer.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2407-12-306
11 https://www.oncotarget.com/article/15736/text/
12 https://www.oncotarget.com/article/20244/text/