Vaxil Biotherapeutics: 'Cancer' vaccine in phase1/11 clinical trials.

 Vaxil BioTherapeutics Ltd. a clinical-stage vaccine development company announced today that it has submitted a patent application to the United States Patent Office (USPTO) dealing with a novel use of signal peptides and naturally generated autoantibodies to signal peptides as a tool in the diagnosis and prognosis of various diseases. Read More

ImMucin is a 21mer synthetic vaccine composed of the entire signal peptide domain of the MUC1 protein. MUC1 is one of the promising targets known today. It is expressed by more than 90 per cent of common solid tumor cancers. It is also associated with many non-solid tumors including Lymphoma, Leukemia and Multiple Myeloma. The association of MUC1 with cancer progression has been well documented in the literature.

ImMucin is intended to stimulate the patient's own immune system to control cancer by means of reacting to the natural corresponding MUC1 antigen as expressed on the surface of cancer cells. 
ImMucin™ possesses several unique characteristics:

> Novel unexplored sequence: Unlike other vaccines which target the entire MUC1 protein or other domains, ImMucin does not contain any non-specific epitopes, which could dilute and disturb specific anti–cancer immunity. ImMucin™ was shown to selectively be expressed on tumor cells, thereby ensuring specific anti-cancer activity.

> Improved immunogenicity: ImMucin was selected due to its unique ability to bind multiple MHC Class I and Class II alleles. This characteristic offer; 
a) A broader immunity by multiple T cell clones both CD8+ and CD4+ T cells using a single sequence. 
b) An immunological response in the majority of the target patients i.e. covering most of the MHC allelic repertoire among the Caucasian (western) population. That is to say, ImMucin™ will be applicable to the entire population vs. 25-40% of the population in most MUC1 peptide vaccines.

> Sequence specific Adjuvant: Unlike other peptide vaccines, which are poor immunogens, ImMucin™ has an internal antigen-specific "adjuvant–like" properties which can overcome the need for additional external adjutants. 

> TAP-Independent presentation: ImMucin contains TAP-independent machinery for transporting its epitope into the ER and can therefore efficiently deal with immune escape mechanism mediated by cancer cells. To the best of our knowledge, this crucial phenotype is not shared by any other vaccines.

Extensive preclinical studies have shown ImMucin to be highly effective in inducing a robust and broad T cell immunity against MUC1 expressing tumors in various in-vitro assays. Moreover, in invivo studies, the anti-MUC1 immunity induced by ImMucin was superior comparing with other MUC1-dervied peptide epitopes including the BLP25 vaccine (Merck AG) currently in Phase III studies. 

ImMucin is currently being evaluated in a Phase I/II clinical trial in Multiple Myeloma patients at the Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem.

http://www.vaxilbio.com/pdf/Vaxil%20technological%20Presentation-website1110.pdf