Rapid delivery of immunoplag-3 therapy significantly improved keytruda response rate

Recently, immunotep announced that its soluble LAG-3 fusion protein eftilagimod alpha (efti, also known as imp321) was used in combination with the heavy PD-1 inhibitor keytruda of MSD company, and obtained positive interim results in phase 2 clinical trials In the first-line treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, this combination therapy achieved a total remission rate (ORR) of 47% However, if the patients with high PD-L1 expression were not selected, the remission rate of keytruda monotherapy in NSCLC patients was only 20% At the same time, the combination of the second-line treatment of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) patients also reached 33% of orr LAG-3 protein can regulate the signal pathways of T lymphocytes and APCs, and play an important role in adaptive immune response Soluble LAG-3 can activate APCs by combining with the major histocompatibility complex II (MHC II) on the surface of APC, which will lead to the increase and activation of cytotoxic CD8 positive T cells Through this mechanism, soluble LAG-3 protein can enhance the immune response to cancer antigens Photo source: immunotep official website Although keytruda has been approved to treat NSCLC patients, the level of PD-L1 expression has a great impact on whether patients can benefit from this treatment According to statistics, in NSCLC patients whose PD-L1 expression is more than 50%, the remission rate of keytruda single drug treatment is close to 40%, while in patients whose PD-L1 expression level is 1-49%, the remission rate is only 15-20%, and patients who do not express PD-L1 are expected to respond less How to expand the population of patients who benefit from keytruda therapy is one of the focuses of the research of MSD Soluble LAG-3 protein may enhance the efficacy of keytruda by activating the response of immune cells ▲ targeting Lag3 can treat a variety of diseases (picture source: immunotep official website) Eftiagimod alpha is a soluble LAG-3 fusion protein In a phase 2 clinical trial called tacti-002, it was used in combination with the PD-1 inhibitor keytruda to treat different types of NSCLC patients, as well as patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck In the first part of the trial, patients in group A were NSCLC patients who had never received PD-1 / PD-L1 inhibitors Patients participating in the trial did not need to consider the level of PD-L1 expression The results showed that the orr was 47% in 17 patients In addition, PD-L1 expression level was lower than 50% in 5 of 8 patients with remission ▲ PD-L1 expression and clinical response of NSCLC patients in cohort a (picture source: reference [1]) "The results of the tacti-002 study are very encouraging," said Dr Frederic triebel, chief scientific officer and chief medical officer of immunotep 47% of the first-line NSCLC patients showed remission, but the remission rate of keytruda single drug was usually 20% if the patients with high PD-L1 expression were not selected in advance This means that combination therapy can work in patients who do not respond to monotherapy " He added: "it's also exciting to see a total response rate of 33% in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma treated with line 2 Generally, the expected remission rate of keytruda is 15-18% And three patients in this group have not yet been evaluated " Based on the positive clinical results of tacti-002, immunotep has launched the second phase of the clinical trial, recruiting more patients to test the effect of this combination therapy reference material: [1] Immutep Reports Positive TACTI-002 Data Retrieved February 18, 2020, from https:// [2] Immutep Retrieved February 18, 2020, from https:// Original title: the first-line treatment of non-small cell lung cancer by express delivery, LAG-3 therapy significantly improved keytruda remission rate A kind of