Arovella presents ALA-101 data at AACR
Highlights:
ALA-101 manufacturing process maintains a highly cytotoxic population of CAR-iNKT cells that target CD19-positive tumour cells
ALA-101 contains diverse subsets of cells with different and complementary mechanisms of responding to tumour cells
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA 8 Apr 2024: Arovella Therapeutics Ltd (ASX: ALA), a biotechnology company focused on developing its invariant Natural Killer T (iNKT) cell therapy platform, today presented data characterising its CD19-targeting allogeneic cell therapy, ALA-101, at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting in San Diego.
The data summarises two distinct phenotypes of cells within the drug product, each of which plays a different role in responding to tumour cells. In particular, ALA-101 CAR-iNKT cells were separated based on whether or not they produced CD4 on their surface (CD4+ vs CD4-). Cells negative for CD4 (CD4-) were better able to kill target tumour cells via the CD19 Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR). In contrast, CD4+ cells proliferated faster in response to CD19+ tumour cells. The two groups of cells also produced a different cytokine response following CAR activation.
The outcomes of these studies have shown encouraging results, supporting the potential benefit of having diverse subsets among CAR19-iNKT cells for treating CD19+ cancers. Arovella’s proprietary iNKT manufacturing method is specifically designed to maintain the highly cytotoxic CD4- population, thus maintaining a healthy balance of cells with different mechanisms of responding to tumour cells.
Arovella Managing Director and CEO Dr Michael Baker said: “We are delighted to have been accepted to present our data at the AACR conference. This work highlights the importance of having a final CAR-iNKT cell product that has a range of phenotypes to drive the optimal clinical outcome in killing cancer cells. We look forward to progressing ALA-101 towards Phase 1 clinical trials in humans.”
