On March 16, 2023 Aptamer Sciences, an aptamer platform company, reported that it will present research results on the ‘CD25-ApDC’ immunotherapy (IO) at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) (AACR 2023), which will be held from April 14th (Press release, Aptamer Sciences, MAR 16, 2023, View Source;idx=236 [SID1234641620]).

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Aptamer Science’s theme at this AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) is ‘Human CD25-targeted aptamer-drug conjugate (CD25-ApDC) depletes and blocks regulatory T cells’. The research results will be announced.

Aptamer Science’s CD25-ApDC immunotherapy is a concept that specifically binds to CD25 on regulatory T cells (Treg) in tumors to prevent cancer cells from evading the body’s immune system.

In particular, CD25-ApDC not only selectively suppresses the function of Tregs, but also promotes immune function by inducing the activation of cytotoxic T cells (effector T cells, Teff) and antigen presenting cells that prevent tumor growth. The company explains that it also does this.

According to the AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) abstract of Aptamer Science CD25-ApDC, Tregs suppress anti-tumor immune responses and promote tumor development and progression.

Additionally, in various cancer types, high infiltration of Tregs is associated with poor survival rates. Aptamer Science is developing CD25-ApDC as a strategy to target Tregs associated with tumor promotion.

In this study, Aptamer Science evaluated the binding affinity, internalization rate, and antagonist effect on CD25 of the CD25-specific aptamer.

In addition, the in vitro cytotoxicity of CD25-ApDC prototype-ApDC was evaluated.

As a result of the evaluation, the binding affinity of the aptamer to CD25 was confirmed to be 4.64nM. In the Treg-like cell line (Karpas299), the internalization half-time of the aptamer was found to be 9.9 minutes (95% CI: 8.2~12.6).

In addition, it was confirmed that it functions as an antagonist for CD25, as the IL-2R-STAT5 signaling pathway was inhibited by aptamer treatment.

When prototype-ApDC was treated with a Treg-like cell line and a T-cell lymphoma cell line (HuT78) in co-culture, the Treg-like cell line was shown to be specifically depleted.

The CD25-ApDC immune anti-cancer drug research presented at this conference has been selected as a research project to expand the new drug base of the National New Drug Development Project hosted by the Korea New Drug Development Foundation (KDDF), and mechanism research and animal model evaluation are currently in progress at the lead material stage.

Lee Dae-gyeon, head of Aptamer Science Research and Development Division, said, "I believe that the presentation at this global conference will be an opportunity to verify the feasibility and competitiveness of aptamer-based immunotherapy research."

"Based on this, we plan to secure momentum for developing treatments and speed up development to conclude early partnerships in the future."

Meanwhile, Aptamer Science has been developing an aptamer-drug conjugate (ApDC) anticancer drug based on aptamer platform technology, and is preparing to enter the clinical stage within the year for ‘AST-201’, a GPC3 ApDC being developed as a liver cancer treatment.

In addition to GPC3, Aptamer Science is developing follow-up pipelines for targets such as Trop2 and EGFRvIII.

Go to article: Aptamer Science, ‘CD25-ApDC’ IO "AACR announcement"