Nouscom announces leading publication revealing an immune mechanism of action driving anti-tumor activity of adenovirus vectored vaccines and anti-PD1 immunotherapy

Nouscom announces leading publication revealing an immune mechanism of action driving anti-tumor activity of adenovirus vectored vaccines and anti-PD1 immunotherapy

Research paper published in Science Translational Medicine by Nouscom and the Armenise-Harvard Laboratory of Immunoregulation at IIGM led by Luigia Pace describes how Nouscom’s adenoviral based vaccine platform enhances anti-tumor immunity by promoting the expansion and diversification of neoantigen-specific memory CD8+ T cells

BASEL, Switzerland – 11^th August 2022 - Nouscom, a clinical stage immuno-oncology company developing off-the-shelf and personalized viral vectored immunotherapies, today announces the publication in Science Translational Medicine of preclinical and clinical research describing a novel mechanism of action driven by its viral vector-based vaccine platform encoding tumor neoantigens.

The publication, entitled ‘Adenoviral based-vaccine promotes neoantigen specific CD8+ T cell stemness and tumor rejection’ demonstrates how Nouscom’s platform when given in combination with anti-PD-1 immunotherapy promotes the expansion and diversification of CD8+ T cells that are specific for the neoantigens encoded by its vaccine. These T cells were shown to exhibit a stem-like phenotype capable of infiltrating the tumor microenvironment and evolving into effector-memory CD8+ T cells.

This mechanism was characterized in a preclinical model of colorectal cancer and confirmed in a Phase 1b trial in metastatic gastrointestinal patients with microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) tumors who saw durable clinical responses when treated with NOUS-209 in combination with anti-PD1.

Encouraging safety, immunogenicity, clinical efficacy and translational data from a fully enrolled Phase 1b trial were presented at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and American Society Clinical Oncology (ASCO) congresses earlier this year.

Dr. Elisa Scarselli, Chief Scientific Officer of Nouscom, said: “This study published in Science Translational Medicine provides new insights into how our adenoviral vector-based cancer vaccine platform can drive clinical efficacy beyond that seen with checkpoint inhibition alone. Our platform allows us to encode for an unprecedented number of neoantigens and is capable of eliciting both a high quality and quantity T cell response for effective anti-tumor control. This mechanism has been validated in both preclinical studies and observed in patients and furthers our understanding of the clinical potential of adenoviral based cancer vaccines. We remain excited for the start of multiple Phase 2 clinical trials of NOUS-209 in the second half of 2022.”

Dr Luigia Pace, Head of the Armenise-Harvard Laboratory of Immunoregulation at the Italian Institute for Genomic Research (IIGM), c/o Candiolo Cancer Institute, FPO-IRCCS, Candiolo, Italy said: “Adenovirus vectored vaccines, expressing tumor-associated neoantigens is one of the most promising approaches to boost CD8+ T cell dependent anti-tumor immunity. In collaboration with Nouscom, we have uncovered the mechanistic details on how such vaccines may work by expansion and diversification of neoantigen-specific CD8+ T cells with a stem-like phenotype, leading to improved therapeutic responses”.

References

A.M. D’Alise et al. Adenoviral Based-Vaccine Promotes Neoantigen Specific CD8+ T Cell Stemness And Tumor Rejection, Science Translational Medicine.

Online publication: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.abo7604