China’s Biocytogen And FineImmune Bring TCR-Mimic Antibodies And Cell Therapy Together

Beijing-based Biocytogen Pharmaceuticals has tapped Guangzhou FineImmune Biotechnology to co-develop cell therapy targeting intracellular tumor-associated antigens. 

Biocytogen will use its TCR-mimic antibody platform to discover antibody sequences that will be further developed with FineImmune’s cell therapy platform.

Targeting Intracellular Antigens 

While monoclonal antibodies have displayed their effectiveness in cancer treatment, their targets are restricted to tumor-associated antigens present on the cell surface. Many tumor antigens are, in fact, intracellular, and could potentially be valuable therapeutic targets. 

A way to target intracellular tumor antigens is through the human leukocyte antigen (HLA), the human version of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules which are involved in antigen presentation. 

When intracellular proteins are broken down by the proteasome, their fragments make their way to HLA which presents them on the cell surface. T-cell receptors (TCR) recognize antigens to stimulate the T-cell immune response. 

Biocytogen’s platform utilizes mice, called RenMice that are engineered to express HLA. When immunized with MHC-antigen-peptide complexes, these mice generate antibodies to intracellular tumor-associated antigens. The antibodies are screened to identify TCR-mimic, or TCR-like antibodies with higher specificity and affinity than endogenous TCRs derived from patients. 

“TCR-mimic antibodies generated by our TCR-mimic platform have potentials to be developed into multiple drug modalities such as T cell engagers, bispecific/ multispecific antibodies and CAR-T therapies,” said Dr. Yuelei Shen, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Biocytogen. 

TCR-mimic antibodies could also be developed into TCR-T cell therapies. While CAR-Ts target extracellular antigens, TCR-T cell therapies require systems like HLA that presents internal antigens. 

Biocytogen’s platform will complement FineImmune, which operates several platforms for T-cell engineering, TCR identification, TCR-T cell production and in vivo T-cell delivery. FineImmune’s pipeline includes TCR-T, CAR-T, and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes among others. FineImmune’s lead candidate is a neoantigen-specific TCR-T cell therapy, which is undergoing a Phase 1 trial. 

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Joy Lin

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