On December 9, 2021 Compugen Ltd. (Nasdaq: CGEN), a clinical-stage cancer immunotherapy company and a leader in predictive target discovery, reported the presentation of preliminary translational data from patient biopsies demonstrating immune activation in the tumor microenvironment (TME) after treatment with COM701, Compugen’s potentially first-in-class anti-PVRIG antibody, as a monotherapy and in combination with nivolumab at the TIGIT Therapies Digital Summit (Press release, Compugen, DEC 9, 2021, View Source [SID1234596724]).
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"These translational data are exciting as they represent the first demonstration of immune activation in the TME of patients who have been treated with COM701 monotherapy or in combination with nivolumab and add to previous data showing immune activation in peripheral blood taken from treated patients," said Eran Ophir, Ph.D., Vice President of Research and Drug Discovery at Compugen. "In addition, we are encouraged by the observed increases in clonal expansion of T cells, immune infiltration and immune activation in an MSS-CRC patient with a confirmed response after COM701 and nivolumab combination therapy given this is an indication that is unlikely to respond to PD-(L)1 blockade. These results are consistent with our earlier findings supporting PVRIG pathway involvement in early differentiation memory T cell priming and activation and provide important evidence of immune modulation at the location critical for efficacy, the tumor site."
Dr. Ophir continued "These data, combined with our earlier findings suggest PVRIG plays a distinct role within the DNAM-1 axis. We look forward to continued investigation of PVRIG blockade in the clinic which we believe has the potential to drive immune responses to address both inflamed and less inflamed tumor types that are typically unresponsive to current checkpoint inhibitors".
Key new findings from the presentation titled, "Harnessing PVRIG & TIGIT Combination in Anti-Cancer Immunity" presented by Dr. Ophir include:
Increased TME immune activation and TCR clonality was observed in a patient with PVRL2+, PD-L1low MSS-CRC with a partial response following treatment of COM701 in combination with nivolumab
COM701 induced immune activation in the TME of a patient with ovarian cancer, showing increased CD8+ T cells and markers of immune activation
COM701 in combination with nivolumab induced markers of activated dendritic cells in the serum of 2 responding patients
The presentation will be available on the publication section of Compugen’s website.