Solid Tumors

Pre-IND Submission Expected in Early to Mid 2023

Despite the demonstrated effective antigen presenting and T-cell stimulating capacity of Dendritic Cells (DCs), the clinical response of DC-based immunotherapy remains limited. Therefore, Enochian is working on improving the stimulatory capacity of DCs by genetically modifying DCs.

Our platform of genetically modified DCs can be translated into several different anti-tumor immunotherapies after either, ex vivo exposure to tumor lysates, loading with tumor proteins or peptides, or transduction with genetic material encoding these tumor signatures. This DC technology platform could be for solid tumors (80% of the cancer market) that the CAR-T Cell technology is for liquid tumors, i.e. blood cancers (20% of the cancer market) and potentially more potent.

We believe that our platform could be one of the most promising and effective strategies to achieve life-long remission for a number of common and deadly tumors.

RENB-DC-11: Genetically-modified Allogeneic Dendritic Cells as Potential Cure

Based on learning from peer-reviewed publications of Phase I/IIa trials, we have designed an innovative therapeutic vaccination platform that could potentially be used to induce life-long remissions from some of the deadliest solid tumors. The survival rate in pancreatic cancer is only 5 to 10 percent at 5 years.

Initial preclinical in vitro and proof of concept in vivo studies have been encouraging. The platform might also allow for non-specific immune enhancement that could have impact against a broad array of solid tumors. We initially plan to target pancreatic cancer. Other potential targets for later development could include triple-negative breast cancer, glioblastoma, or renal cell carcinoma. As with HIV, our approach would potentially allow for outpatient therapy without wiping out or significantly impairing the patient’s immune system, as many current approaches require.

Renovaro BioSciences has initiated a collaboration with Dr. Anahid Jewett from UCLA to study further the in vitro and in vivo effectiveness of the approach in pancreatic cancer. Dr. Jewett created an innovative pancreatic cancer mouse model that mimics the human immune system in combination with implanted human cancer cells. Early results show promising substantial tumor size reduction. We have completed Pre-IND in June 2023 and are now in IND-Enabling phase. If successful, clinical trials could begin in early 2024.