Eureka Therapeutics Launches Phase 1/2 Clinical Trial of ET140202 ARTEMIS™ T-Cell Therapy for Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Today, Eureka Therapeutics announced the initiation of a Phase 1/2 clinical trial of its T-cell therapy, ET140202 Artemis, for the treatment of liver cancer at City of Hope in California, USA. This multicenter, open-label, dose-escalation trial is designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of ET140202 Artemis T-cell therapy in patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC).

According to statistics from the American Cancer Society, the diagnosis rate of liver cancer has tripled since 1980. In 2019, it was estimated that there were more than 42,000 new cases diagnosed, with over 30,000 deaths resulting from the disease. In China, liver cancer is also one of the cancers with the highest incidence and mortality rates.

CAR-T therapy is one of the breakthrough immunotherapies for cancer treatment; however, it may lead to excessive immune system activation, triggering potentially fatal cytokine release syndrome and cytokine-related toxicities.

The Artemis platform, developed by Eureka Therapeutics, is designed to leverage the intrinsic activation and regulatory systems of T cells to engineer T-cell therapies for attacking cancer. The TCR receptor designs developed via the Artemis platform do not directly link the intracellular signaling domains of the TCR receptor with co-stimulatory protein domains, thereby potentially preventing T-cell overactivation and associated adverse effects such as cytokine release. ET140202 is a human TCR-mimic antibody developed using Eureka Therapeutics’ proprietary Artemis Antibody T-Cell Receptor platform, which targets the alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) peptide/HLA-A2 complex on the surface of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells. Proof-of-concept clinical studies currently underway in China have demonstrated that ET140404 exhibits a favorable safety profile, with no occurrences of cytokine release syndrome or drug-related neurotoxicity.

Note: The original text has been abridged.

References:

[1] Eureka Therapeutics Announces Initiation of Phase 1/2 Clinical Trial of ET140202 ARTEMIS^™ T-Cell Therapy in Liver Cancer. Retrieved August 5, 2019, from https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190805005252/en/

[2] Eureka Therapeutics. Retrieved August 5, 2019, from https://www.eurekatherapeutics.com

▽Follow [WuXi AppTecDe】WeChat Official Account