Jennifer Baker Flechtner, Ph.D. – Genocea Biosciences Inc"™s Chief Scientific Officer discusses Genocea to Present Data that Reveal New Understanding of ATLASTM-Identified InhibigenTM Biology at AACR Virtual Annual Meeting II
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 22, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) " Genocea Biosciences, Inc. ( NASDAQ: GNCA), a biopharmaceutical company that develops next-generation neoantigen immunotherapies, today presented preclinical evidence at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Virtual Annual Meeting II that provides fresh and significant insights into the biology and actions of inhibitory neoantigen (InhibigensTM) The results are based on previous research presented at SITC 2019 that showed that the involvement of an inhibitor in otherwise protective immunotherapy can completely reverse anti-tumor responses.
In the preclinical analysis, it was found that pro-tumor Inhibigen effects were associated with an increasingly immune-suppressive tumor microenvironment ( TME), including reduced TILs and increased marker expression of T cell exhaustion. Tumor-bearing mouse vaccination with an inhibitory formulation inhibited the activity of both tumor antigen-specific and non-specific T cell functions by blocking their ability to secrete cytokines and destroy tumor cells, an effect that removed T cell responses to beneficial anti-tumor antigens.
Furthermore, the poster presentation revealed that immunization with inhibigens led to a decrease in the expression of tumor-specific T cells by the T cell receptor ( TCR), which further impeded the role and operation of T cells required to produce a robust immune response. The study also showed that regulatory T cells-a subset of T cells known to suppress immune responses-are not controlled by the Inhibigen-specific responses.