Antisoma says new data explain AS1402 cancer-cell killing capabilities

By E. Janene Geiss

Philadelphia, Sept. 11 - Antisoma plc said Monday that new data on its antibody drug AS1402 highlight the key role of white blood cells, called natural killer cells, in the action of the drug, which is being prepared for phase 2 trials in breast cancer.

A team from the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, took white blood cells from healthy donors and added them to cultures of breast cancer cells together with the AS1402 antibody.

Donor samples that were richer in natural killer cells were clearly best at supporting killing of the cancer cells, the London biopharmaceutical company said in a news release.

Incubating the natural killer cells in advance with cytokines - IL2, IL21 or IL15 - enhanced killing, suggesting potential merit in combining AS1402 with these agents. The data were presented Sunday at the 16th European Congress of Immunology in Paris.

AS1402 binds to a target on cancer cells and is then, in turn, bound by cells of the immune system. This allows the immune cells to deliver a lethal, close-range attack on the cancer cells - an action described as antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity.

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