A Business Partnership Proposal
Advantages
- Diagnostic methods using peripheral blood: Relatively minimally invasive; Low cost; Realtime monitoring
Background
While some immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) have been shown to have significant effects on antitumor immune responses, the response rates of those currently on the market are not very high. In general, the response rate of anti-PD-1 antibody drugs is low (i.e., Nivolumab is said to be around 20%), so clinical development combined with patient stratification by companion diagnostics is being attempted. For example, Pembrolizumab, a drug for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer, has been approved in combination with companion diagnostics (CoDx) that test for PD-L1 positivity in lung cancer tissue. However, since this requires invasive testing, there is a need for a simpler and more accurate method of predicting treatment efficacy.
Technology Overview
This technology, named PeriCyto ‒ peripheral T cell cytotoxicity, is capable of predicting the efficacy and severe adverse events of immunotherapy in cancer patients. The above diagnosis can be achieved with a very simple method. First, T cells collected from the peripheral blood of cancer patients are co-cultured with tumor cells and dual specificity molecules (engagers) such as BiTE (Bispecific T-cell Engager) for two days, and then the cytotoxic activity of the patient’s peripheral blood-derived T cells is measured.
Publication(s)
K. Iwahori, et al. “Peripheral T cell cytotoxicity predicts T cell function in the tumor microenvironment.” Scientific Reports volume 9, Article number: 2636 (2019).
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-39345-5
K. Iwahori, et al. “Peripheral T cell cytotoxicity predicts the efficacy of anti‑PD‑1 therapy for advanced non‑small cell lung cancer patients.” Scientific Reports volume 12, Article number: 17461 (2022).
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-22356-0
Patent(s)
PCT/JP2018/024770
Note: The PCT application is published on WIPO website as WO2019/004415 in Japanese, and applied for transition application to CN, EP, JP, US (JP: Granted, Others: Pending).
Principal Investigator & Academic Institution
Kota IWAHORI, MD, PhD (Specially Appointed Associate Professor, Osaka University, Japan)
Expectations
This is Not a proposal for an IP license, but for business partnership/collaboration with Osaka University and Diagnostics Companies on the PeriCyto CoDx technology, and an inquiry about your interests and wishes.
Tech Manage Corp. is looking for the partners which are developing ICI drugs and interested in trying this invention as a CoDx technology for developing stage medicines. We can set up a meeting between the parties involved. If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask us anything, anytime.
Project Code: JT-03945