- California-based INmune Bio is developing therapies to battle cancers and Alzheimer’s disease by more effectively engaging the body’s own natural defenses
- Research published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal shows a mechanism by which scientists can track and strategize natural killer cell promotion as an innate physical response to cancer in lieu of other pharmaceutical inducements
- INmune Bio’s INKmune product, derived from the cell line used in its research, naturally targets “residual disease” cells that may survive other cancer treatments and revitalize themselves to create a relapse of cancer
The battle to marshal naturally occurring cells within the human body to destroy cancerous tumors has gained new intelligence that appears to strengthen an immunotherapy strategy employed by clinical-stage biotechnology company INmune Bio Inc. (NASDAQ: INMB). The encouraging report arises from research on tumor-primed vs. cytokine-primed human natural killer (NK) cells, published in June in peer-reviewed, open-access scientific journal PLOS ONE (http://ibn.fm/HuKXg).
“We are delighted to be sharing these data describing the unique molecular pathways triggered within human NK cells upon priming with INmune Bio’s own INB16 (INKmune) cell line,” INmune Bio co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Mark Lowdell, who co-authored the study, stated in a news release announcing the publication (http://ibn.fm/LYvqj). “This work has combined expertise across many groups, and it was important to publish these data in a highly-regarded open access journal to ensure that they are available to the widest possible audience.”
INmune Bio is a clinical stage immuno-oncology company focused on successfully harnessing patients’ immune systems to treat cancer by targeting cells that may survive initial therapies and become resurgent to cause a relapse of the cancer. By controlling these “residual disease” cells, INmune Bio hopes to enable patients to live longer through a novel mechanism of action and a precision medicine approach that suppress or eliminate relapses.
The company’s INKmune drug is a biologic therapy that strives to activate the body’s innate immune system by “priming” NK cells that are at rest to go on alert, seek out and destroy cancerous cells. The therapy uses simple IV infusion of the INKmune cell line – a tumor cell product – to call up the NKs for duty.
The PLOS ONE report notes that the research comparing tumor cell activation to the results from increasingly popular work on cytokine-mediated activation (http://ibn.fm/A9UXg) shows that the two therapies demonstrate distinct effects and that tumor therapy has the potential to be more effective against cancer targets with potentially fewer side effects than the administration of cytokines such as IL-2 or IL-15.
The research paper identifies a unique signaling “fingerprint” expressed by NK cells after binding to CTV-1 tumor cells, which are the parent clones of INmune Bio’s INB16 cells. Scientists are then able to use data obtained from the “fingerprint” to build strategies for immunotherapy treatments.
Lowdell went on to state, “These data confirm that the primed NK cells generated by INB16 stimulation upregulate genes, which are crucial to NK-mediated killing of patients’ cancer cells, such as CD70 and CXCL10. These differences in gene expression may explain the greater cytotoxic activity of INB16 primed NK cells in vitro compared to cytokine primed cells which may lead to greater clinical efficacy.”
INmune Bio is also completing testing of its INB03 product, a checkpoint inhibitor that targets myeloid-derived suppressor cells (“MDSC”) that may produce a “shield” preventing a patient’s immune system from attacking cancer cells. The company is also exploring Alzheimer’s disease therapies using its XPro1595 product that targets the microglial immune cells of the brain, which may cause neuroinflammation that can kill nerve cells and promote synaptic dysfunction in the brain.
For more information, visit the company’s website at www.INmuneBio.com
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to INMB are available in the company’s newsroom at http://ibn.fm/INMB
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