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Unum Therapeutics Presents Preclinical Data for BOXR1030 at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Annual Meeting
- Unum’s first product candidate from its BOXR platform, BOXR1030, is designed to improve T cell functionality in the solid tumor microenvironment - -
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[{"type":"text","content":"- Unum’s first product candidate from its BOXR platform, BOXR1030, is designed to improve T cell functionality in the solid tumor microenvironment -\n - BOXR1030 T cells co-express the GOT2 transgene to improve T cell metabolism and reduce T cell exhaustion, leading to complete tumor regressions in xenograft studies - CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 05, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Unum Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: UMRX), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing curative cell therapies for cancer, today announced preclinical data for its BOXR1030 program presented at the SITC meeting being held November 6–10, 2019 in National Harbor, MD. “Solid tumors create an unfavorable microenvironment that depletes T cells of critical nutrients and amino acids, drives T cell dysfunction, and inhibits the effectiveness of cellular therapies, and our BOXR platform was specifically developed to discover novel transgenes that can be co-expressed with chimeric-targeting receptors to improve T cell functionality in the solid tumor microenvironment,” said Seth Ettenberg, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Unum. “At this year’s SITC, we present preclinical data on the first product candidate from our BOXR platform, BOXR1030, which contains the GOT2 transgene. In our preclinical studies using stringent animal xenograft models that simulate the solid tumor microenvironment, expression of the GOT2 mitochondrial enzyme in BOXR1030 increased the production of key amino acids and metabolites, improved the anti-oxidant balance of T cells, and prevented their dysfunction and exhaustion. This work extends the increasingly recognized importance of immunometabolism in ensuring proper immune cell function.” Poster presentation title: “Co-expression of the Metabolic Enzyme GOT2 with a GPC3-Targeted CAR-T Overcomes Challenges of the Solid Tumor Microenvironment, Substantially Improving Therapeutic Efficacy in Solid Tumor Xenografts” BOXR1030 Summary: BOXR1030 contains a humanized single-chain variable fragment (scFv) 4-1BB CAR targeting GPC3 and separately co-expresses the glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase 2 (GOT2) transgene from a single viral construct. Unum’s BOXR platform led to the discovery of the utility of GOT2, a critical enzyme involved in cellular metabolism. When co-expressed with a GPC3-targeted CAR-T, GOT2 improved metabolic and transcript...