Abstract 4712: AT1965, a novel B cell-activating immunotherapy, exerts potent anticancer activity

Abstract

Abstract Emerging clinical evidence implicate B cells in long term survival in cancer. However, a therapeutic activation of a B cell response against cancer has not been explored. Here we describe the results with AT1965, which exerts a potent anticancer effect via the activation of B cells. AT1965 completely regressed aggressive 4T1 breast tumors established in balb/c mice. Immunophenotyping revealed that IGKC, a B cell marker, was the dominant immune biomarker that is over-expressed following AT1965 treatment. The lack of functional B cells in vivo, via the deletion of the JH gene results in the loss of heavy chain production, blocked this anti-cancer activity of AT1965. Activation of a B cell response is associated with long term memory, which should prevent relapse. To test this, tumor-bearing animals were treated with AT1965 to induce regression; Not a single animal relapsed, i.e. developed the tumor when re-challenged with the tumor thirty days after the primary tumors had regressed. T and B cells are natural partners in an immune response. We therefore tested the combination of a PD1 immune checkpoint inhibitor and AT1965 in an immunocompetent lung cancer model. Only 12.5% of the animals treated with AT1965 or the PD1-inhibitor exhibited a complete regression of lung cancer, while 37.5% exhibited delayed tumor progression. In contrast, 50% of the animals underwent complete tumor regression and 25% exhibited tumor growth inhibition when the two drugs were combined, consistent with the basic immunology premise that both B and T cells work together to mount a complete immune response. Our results indicate that B cell activation could emerge as the next paradigm in cancer immunotherapy. Citation Format: Monideepa Roy, Vineeth Krishna, Aniruddha Sengupta, Sudip Roy, Ashish Kulkarni, Shiladitya Sengupta. AT1965, a novel B cell-activating immunotherapy, exerts potent anticancer activity [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 4712.