Medigene licences CD40L-CD28 costimulatory switch receptor

Medigene has licences the global exclusive rights for CD40L-CD28 costimulatory switch receptor from the Helmholtz Centre Munich. Financial details were not disclosed.

The effectiveness of cancer immunotherapies is currently strongly inhibited by tumour signalling preventing T-cell invasion into the tumour stroma. Medigene’s PD1-41BB switch receptor turns off the tumour’s self-defence mechanism by replacing the inhibitory signalling domain of PD-1 with the activating signalling domain of 4-1BB. So instead of inactivating T cells, the switch receptor sends an activating signal to TCR T cells. PD1-41BB-modified TCR T cells proliferate strongly in the presence of PD-L1-positive tumour cells and kill more tumour cells with repeated exposure. In addition, thanks to the switch receptor signals, TCR T cells are better able to function with low glucose levels or high TGF-beta levels, two conditions that are characteristic of highly immune-inhibitory tumour microenvironments.

"The CD40L-CD28 costimulatory switch receptor expands our suite of product enhancement technologies within our platform and joins our existing PD1-41BB costimulatory switch receptor as a technology that has the potential to further enhance the anti-tumor activity of our TCR-T cells and improve their ability to overcome the immunosuppressive solid tumor microenvironment." said Prof. Dolores Schendel, Chief Scientific Officer of Medigene.

"We believe that the beneficial effects of the CD40L-CD28 costimulatory switch receptor may be separate or even complementary to those of our existing technologies. We look forward to generating and sharing the data for this in due course."

Medigene’s end-to-end platform includes multiple product development optimisation technologies such as Allogeneic-HLA TCR Priming and enhancement technologies, (e.g. PD1-41BB Switch Receptor, Precision Pairing) to aid the development of differentiated TCR-T therapies.