Hookipa Biotech announces data showing TheraT turns cold tumours hot

TheraT mediated alarmin release crucial for active immunization in cancer immunotherapy.

Hookipa Biotech has announced publication in Nature Communications of research data in a transgenic mouse model showing how its replicating viral vector platform TheraT delivers potent innate immune activation including key alarmin signals.

Hookipa’s CSO, Professor Daniel D. Pinschewer, of the Division of Experimental Virology, Department of Biomedicine, University of Basel, Switzerland, and senior co-author of the paper, said: "This key research data is the first publication on Hookipa’s platform technology TheraT (also referred to as artLCMV). The paper shows TheraT’s tremendously potent anti-tumour effects and also the underlying molecular mechanism. Eliciting the most potent cytotoxic T cell responses is a crucial step in treating patients with aggressive cancers."

Hookipa’s TheraT, based on live-attenuated lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (artLCMV), has been designed to harness the immune system to combat cancer. TheraT works by delivering tumour-associated antigen-specific immunization alongside the release of the alarmin interleukin-33 (IL-33). IL-33 is a key driver of potent and protective CD8+ cytotoxic effector T lymphocytes (CTL), and TheraT is engineered to target stromal cells, which release IL-33 to trigger this alarmin pathway, providing a discriminating feature of TheraT. The Nature Communications paper details experimental work in gene-targeted mice showing triggering of such IL-33 signals provides potent tumor immunotherapy.

Hookipa has an exclusive license to commercially exploit the unique novel cancer immunotherapy platform (TheraT) developed by scientists at the University of Basel and University of Geneva.

Commenting on the publication, Hookipa´s CEO, Mr Jörn Aldag said: "With Hookipa’s novel Vaxwave and TheraT platforms, the Company has a strong technology foundation. This publication in the high impact factor journal Nature Communications is another important milestone on our drive to deliver next-generation cancer immune therapeutics and vaccines to patients. We intend to start clinical development of an HPV+ head and neck cancer program based on TheraT in 2018".