ONK Therapeutics Presents Promising In-Vivo Data of its Optimized Affinity CD38 CAR-NK Candidate, Being Developed for the Treatment of Multiple Myeloma

• First in-vivo data for ONKT102, a fully human, optimized affinity CD38 CAR-NK cell therapy
• Data showed potent anti-tumor activity in-vitro and in-vivo of cord-derived ONKT102 in a CD38 positive tumor model of multiple myeloma
• Poster presented at the International Myeloma Society 2022, 25-27 August 2022, Los Angeles, USA by CSO Prof. Michael O’Dwyer

Galway, Ireland and San Diego, USA,  29 August 2022 - ONK Therapeutics, an innovative company dedicated to developing optimally engineered natural killer (NK) cell therapies to cure patients with cancer, today announced the first in-vivo data for ONKT102, a fully human, optimized affinity CD38 CAR-NK cell therapy.

The positive data, presented in a poster at the International Myeloma Society late on Friday 26 August by ONK Therapeutics CSO Prof. Michael O’Dwyer showed potent anti-tumor activity for ONKT102 in-vitro and in-vivo in a CD38 positive MM.1S-LUC tumor model of multiple myeloma.

ONK Therapeutics is developing a pipeline of off-the-shelf, optimally engineered natural killer (NK) cell therapies expressing a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR), further modified to enhance tumor homing, persistence and metabolism, and to overcome exhaustion in the tumor microenvironment.  Currently it has four programs in pre-clinical development across hematological malignancies and solid tumors. ONKT102 is the company’s most advanced program, and is being advanced towards clinical development as a potential treatment for patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (MM).

CD38 is an established immunotherapeutic target in MM. In this study, expanded cord blood (CB) derived NK cells first underwent CRISPR gene editing to knock out CD38 to prevent fratricide, following which they were genetically modified to express the optimized affinity CD38 CAR, using Tc Buster, a non-viral transposon approach developed by BioTechne. The anti-tumor efficacy of the optimized CD38 CAR-NK cells was then evaluated in NOD scid gamma (NSG) mice inoculated with MM.1S-LUC cells. Mice underwent weekly bioluminescient imaging to monitor tumor burden. The results showed that CD38 CAR-NK cells significantly reduced tumor burden and improved survival versus control CB NK cells and vehicle control.

Prof. Michael O’Dwyer, founder and CSO at ONK Therapeutics said, “These results suggest that non-virally engineered, optimized affinity CD38 CAR-NK CD38 KO cells have potent anti-tumor activity in-vitro and in-vivo in a CD38 positive tumor model.

“We are encouraged by these data and future work at ONK Therapeutics aims to optimize the dose and schedule, confirm the favorable safety profile and potential beneficial immune modulatory effects of our approach, as well as the added benefit of gene-editing with CRISPR/Cas9 to knock out CISH to enhance persistence."

DETAILS OF THE POSTER PRESENTATION

Conference: International Myeloma Society 2022, 25-27 August 2022, Los Angeles, USA

Poster: P-018: CB derived, optimized affinity CD38 CAR-NK cells with CD38 KO show promising in-vivo activity in a Multiple Myeloma model

Authors: S. Brophy, ONK Therapeutics et  al

Timing: Friday 26 August, 19.30-20.30 (Pacific time)

Location: West Hall A

View the poster HERE.