On February 8, 2021 Seneca Therapeutics, Inc. ("STI"), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of targeted oncolytic immunotherapeutics based on Seneca Valley Virus (SVV-001), reported the expansion of its R&D pipeline with six new armed gene therapy/oncolytic constructs directed against important cancer targets and indications (Press release, Seneca Therapeutics, FEB 8, 2021, View Source [SID1234574741]). STI also announced an SVV-001 Armed Construct program developing precision medicine constructs expressing patient-specific Neo-antigens. Each of these new gene therapy technologies uses SVV to exclusively target cancer cells with TEM 8 expression. Normal cells lack significant expression of TEM 8 and are therefore not infected by SVV-001, and so the armed transgene will not express in normal cells. Studies in multiple human tumor types indicates TEM 8 expression is an adverse indicator of long-term survival and is associated with cancer metastasis. STI intends to develop each combination as an IV product, taking advantage of the multiple IV dosing program currently underway at the company:

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SVV-012- SVV+ Anti PD-L1 – "Addition of a checkpoint inhibitor is designed to enhance the CD8+ T-cell response against tumors"
SVV-024 – SVV+ Enhanced IL-2 Gene – "This construct is designed to bind IL-2 receptors to activate the immune response in tumors without activating CD25 and thereby avoid toxicities observed with the IL-2 protein"
SVV-037 – SVV+ CXCL-9 – "This construct is designed to express the chemokine CXCL-9 in the tumor microenvironment and promote recruitment of immune cells into treated tumors"
SVV-044 – SVV+ TGF-beta decoy – "This construct is designed to block TGF-beta signaling in tumors and avoid immunosuppression"
SVV- 058 SVV+ Nitroreductase – "This nitroreductase construct is designed to function as a prodrug and convert cytotoxic metabolites selectively in the tumor microenvironment"
SVV- 069 – SVV+ IL-2/IL-15 Fusion Protein – "Vectors delivering IL-2/IL-15 agonists are designed to improve immune cell trafficking and infiltration into tumors and provide both T-cell and NK-cell signals"
Each of these products either has been or is being produced in STI’s SVV platform. Animal studies for each product are anticipated to begin in 2Q21.

The SVV-001 Armed Construct for Neo-antigens program plans to use patient specific neo-antigens to take advantage of the rapid two-week development cycle for SVV-001 Armed Constructs.

"SVV itself has many distinct advantages over other forms of cancer therapy. Chief among these is the exquisite cancer cell specificity of both SVV replication and the expression of a transgene. Together, these make SVV a unique and powerful multi-modal platform," said Dr. Paul Hallenbeck, Ph.D. Founder and President of STI.