VLP THERAPEUTICS, INC. — Department of Health and Human Services SBIR Phase I: 102

Description

Abstract Cancer immunotherapy has revolutionized today s treatments for many forms of cancers In particular blocking antibodies to immune checkpoint proteins such as programmed cell death PD and its ligand programmed cell death ligand PD L effectively unleash immune cell destruction of cancerous cells However the high cost of these antibody based immunotherapies their intensive therapeutic regimen and availability only at specialized medical centers make current immunotherapies impractical in all but the most advantaged societies We hypothesize that an effective vaccine which can overcome these significant shortcomings of antibody based immunotherapies while simultaneously mimicking their potent therapeutic benefits can impact the lives of countless more patients in particular a vaccine that induces durable levels of host antibodies against the tumor associated PD L protein will have powerful anti tumor effects by inhibiting the PD L PD immunosuppressive checkpoint interaction We at VLP Therapeutics have developed a proprietary plug and play vaccine platform called inserted alphavirus virus like particle i VLP using the Chikungunya CHIK VLP VLPs mimic the conformation of native viruses without the viral genome thus capable of stimulating a robust host response absent safety issues Foreign antigens can be inserted into the surface loop domains of i VLP Due to its unique structure i VLP can efficiently present a dense array of copies of the inserted antigen on the particle surface i VLP induces highly effective immune responses to the inserted antigen and CHIK VLPs have shown acceptable safety profiles in a Phase I clinical trial We propose to establish proof of concept of our PD L targeting vaccine s efficacy in a triple negative breast cancer TNBC like model given that TNBCs have shown some responsiveness to PD L PD antibody therapies in clinical trials and there remains a high unmet need for effective therapies against this particularly aggressive form of breast cancer which has the worst five year survival prognosis among all breast cancers and for which standard chemotherapy treatment is largely ineffective The goal of this proposal is to determine the extent to which vaccination with our proprietary i VLP based PD L vaccine PD L VLP can mimic the effects of passive PD L monoclonal antibody therapy This study will provide the basis for advancing this exciting approach into clinical trials To create this vaccine we propose the following Specific Aims Aim Determine the ability of PD L VLP to stimulate the production of antibodies that bind to tumor associated PD L and inhibit its binding to the T cell immune checkpoint receptor PD in murine models Aim Determine the therapeutic effects of PD L VLP vaccination in a PD PD L antibody therapy sensitive murine tumor model benchmarked against PD L monoclonal antibody treatment Aim Determine whether potential immune related adverse events including autoimmunity can be induced by our PD L VLP vaccine Narrative Cancer immunotherapy in particular blocking antibodies to immune checkpoint proteins effectively unleash immune cell destruction of cancerous cells However their high cost intensive therapeutic regimen and limited availability only at sophisticated medical centers make current antibody based immunotherapies impractical in all but privileged societies An effective vaccine directed against the tumor associated PD L protein which mimics the therapeutic benefits of antibody based PD L immunotherapy while overcoming its significant shortcomings described above will have powerful anti tumor effects and answer unmet medical needs for countless more patients in the US and worldwide