Exploiting shared tumour specific antigens for cancer therapy
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Exploiting immunogenicity of shared tumour specific antigens for cancer immunotherapy\n
IRAS ID
312845
Contact name
Ewald Doornebal
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Epitopea LIMITED
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Epitopea is a new company that aims to identify new proteins produced by cancer cells that can be used as targets for immune system-based therapeutics. It has been known for some time that cancer cells produce fragments of proteins that are not produced by any other cells in the human body. Because these proteins are not present in an individual when they are born, such protein fragments are seen by the immune system as foreign and immune cells can mount a response to these proteins, in much the same way as vaccines are used to produce a desired immune response. These tumour specific protein fragments are known as tumour specific antigen (TSA) and have been used in clinical trials as cancer therapeutics. However, recent research has revealed the molecular mechanisms in cancer cells that lead to the production of particular TSAs, known as cryptic TSAs or Cryptigens, and that these cryptic TSAs are conserved between different tumour types. Epitopea is looking to use previously identified and proprietary cryptic TSAs produced by ovarian and leukemic cancer cells to facilitate the development of revolutionary “off-the-shelf“ immunotherapeutic drugs and therapeutic cancer vaccines. To achieve this Epitopea must first identify the cryptic TSAs that produce the most robust activation of T cells and then characterise the T cells that respond to them. \nTo do this, Epitopea will:\n• Use immune cells from healthy donors to set up laboratory-based assays that can determine which cryptic TSAs give the strongest immune response from T cells and are most likely to be represented in a substantial number of patients with either ovarian cancer or acute myeloid leukaemia. \n• Characterise the T cells that respond strongly to the cryptic TSAs and sequence their T cell receptors to better characterise what makes the cryptic TSA provoke a substantial immune response in T cells.\n• Identify new sets of TSAs in one or more additional cancer types\n\n
REC name
HSC REC A
REC reference
22/NI/0060
Date of REC Opinion
7 Mar 2022
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion