Compugen Presents at American Association of Cancer Research Special Conference on Tumor Immunology
December 04 2012 - 6:00AM
Business Wire
Speaking today at the American Association of Cancer Research
Special Conference on Tumor Immunology in Miami, Florida, Dr. Ofer
Levy, Senior Scientist at Compugen Ltd., presented data supporting
the therapeutic potential of CGEN-15001T and CGEN-15022, proteins
discovered by Compugen, as immune checkpoint targets for cancer
immunotherapy. This prestigious conference features talks by key
opinion leaders, invited to discuss new findings in the field of
tumor immunology. Presentations cover both basic and translational
research, highlighting rapidly developing advances in this
breakthrough approach to cancer treatment.
CGEN-15001T and CGEN-15022 are both membrane proteins which were
predicted and validated by Compugen as novel B7/CD28-like immune
checkpoint candidates. Such checkpoint proteins are expressed on
the surface of cancer cells and other cells within the tumor
microenvironment, and their negative immune activities protect the
tumor from being attacked by the immune system. Both Compugen
targets have shown robust inhibitory activity in different assays
of T cell activation, and in his talk, Dr. Levy presented some of
these findings. The robust inhibitory activities of these novel
immune checkpoints, which were previously demonstrated using each
target's extracellular domain fused to an Fc antibody fragment,
have now also been shown for the targets’ native membrane forms,
which is an important finding for antibody targets.
In his talk, Dr. Levy presented expression profile data for
CGEN-15001T and CGEN-15022 in various cancer types, demonstrating
substantially different expression patterns for the two drug
targets. As previously disclosed, CGEN-15001T is expressed in
various solid cancers and hematological malignancies, including
prostate cancer, melanoma, Hodgkin's lymphoma and Non-Hodgkin's
lymphoma, such as T and B cell lymphomas. In addition, CGEN-15001T
was shown to be expressed in the infiltrating immune cells within
the tumor, further supporting an immunomodulatory role for this
target in cancer development. In comparison, CGEN-15022 is highly
expressed in liver, lung, breast, colorectal, prostate and ovarian
cancers, as described today by Dr. Levy. The high expression levels
observed in these cancers compared with their respective normal
cells support the development of antibodies with high specificity
toward the cancer cells.
Taken together, the immune inhibitory activities and expression
profiles of CGEN-15001T and CGEN-15022 point to their potential to
serve as promising drug targets for antibody treatment of various
solid cancers, an area of substantial unmet need and of great
interest to the medical community and pharmaceutical industry.
Therapeutic antibodies blocking the function of Compugen's novel
immune checkpoints, currently being generated at Compugen's U.S.
subsidiary in California, would remove their suppressive effect and
therefore stimulate the patient’s own immune system to attack and
destroy the tumor. This approach has the potential to provide
durable anti-tumor immunity, and thus offer a very promising path
for effective cancer immunotherapy.
About Immune Checkpoints
Immune checkpoints have lately emerged as "game changers" for
cancer therapy. Clinical studies employing mAb blockade of immune
checkpoints have shown unprecedented durable therapeutic responses
that offer a possible cure of metastatic disease. Negative
costimulators from the B7/CD28 protein family play key roles as
immune checkpoints, regulating the immune system to prevent
autoimmunity and to protect tissues from damage during
inflammation. The expression of immune checkpoint proteins is
dysregulated by tumors and other cells in their microenvironment as
an important immune resistance mechanism, which is critical for
tumor development.
About Compugen
Compugen (NASDAQ:CGEN) is a leading therapeutic product
discovery company focused on therapeutic proteins and monoclonal
antibodies to address important unmet needs in the fields of
immunology and oncology. The Company utilizes a broad and
continuously growing integrated infrastructure of proprietary
scientific understandings and predictive platforms, algorithms,
machine learning systems and other computational biology
capabilities for the in silico (by computer) prediction and
selection of product candidates, which are then advanced in its
Pipeline Program. The Company's business model includes
collaborations covering the further development and
commercialization of selected product candidates from its Pipeline
Program and various forms of research and discovery agreements, in
both cases providing Compugen with potential milestone payments and
royalties on product sales or other forms of revenue sharing. In
2012, Compugen established operations in California for the
development of oncology and immunology monoclonal antibody
therapeutic candidates against Compugen drug targets. For
additional information, please visit Compugen's corporate website
at www.cgen.com.
This press release may contain “forward-looking statements”
within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
of 1995. These statements include words such as “may,” “expects,”
“projects,” “anticipates,” “believes” and “intends,” and describe
opinions about future events. Forward-looking statements in this
press release include, but are not limited to, the potential of
CGEN-15001T and CGEN-15022 to serve as promising drug targets for
antibody treatment of various cancers. These forward-looking
statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that
may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of
Compugen to be materially different from any future results,
performance or achievements expressed or implied by such
forward-looking statements. Some of these risks are: changes in
relationships with collaborators, including, without limitation,
corporate partners or licensees; the impact of competitive products
and technological changes; risks relating to the development of new
products in general; risks relating to the research, development,
regulatory approval, manufacturing or marketing of new therapeutic
or diagnostic products; the ability to implement technological
improvements; and risks related to obtaining necessary resources,
including, without limitation, capital. These and other factors are
discussed in the "Risk Factors" section of Compugen’s Annual Report
on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2011 as filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition, any
forward-looking statements represent Compugen’s views only as of
the date of this release and should not be relied upon as
representing its views as of any subsequent date. Compugen does not
assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements
unless required by law.
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