On February 4, 2020 Compugen Ltd. (Nasdaq: CGEN), a clinical-stage cancer immunotherapy company and leader in predictive target discovery, reported that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted the Company a new patent for methods of screening for anti-PVRIG antibodies that inhibit the binding of PVRIG with PVRL2 (Press release, Compugen, FEB 4, 2020, View Source [SID1234553856]).
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U.S. Patent No. 10,550,173, titled "PVRIG Polypeptides and Methods of Treatment," covers a method of screening for any anti-PVRIG antibody that inhibits the binding of PVRIG with PVRL2, which can be used, for example, for determining the effect of candidate antibody agents on various T cell activation.
The patent is expected to expire in the United States no earlier than February 2036.
About COM701 and PVRIG
COM701 is a humanized antibody that binds with high affinity to PVRIG, a novel immune checkpoint target candidate discovered by Compugen, blocking the interaction with its ligand, PVRL2. Blockade of PVRIG by COM701 has demonstrated potent, reproducible enhancement of T cell activation, consistent with the desired mechanism of action of activating T cells in the tumor microenvironment to generate anti-tumor immune responses. In addition, COM701 combined with antagonist anti-PD-1 antibodies has demonstrated synergistic effects in enhancing human T cell stimulation and inhibiting tumor growth in murine models, indicating an intersection of the PVRIG and PD-1 inhibitory pathways and the potential of these combinations to further enhance immune response against tumors.
PVRIG and TIGIT constitute parallel immune checkpoint pathways that counteract DNAM, a costimulatory molecule on T cells and NK cells. Preclinical data for COM701 suggest that PVRIG may be a dominant checkpoint pathway in diverse patient populations with tumors that express elevated PVRL2, the ligand of PVRIG, as compared to expression of PVR, the ligand of TIGIT. This includes patients with breast, endometrial, and ovarian cancers. In addition, expression studies show that PVRIG, TIGIT, and their respective ligands, are expressed in a broad variety of tumor types, such as those noted above, as well as lung, kidney, and head & neck cancers. In these tumors the blockade of both TIGIT and PVRIG may be required to sufficiently stimulate an anti-tumor immune response, with or without additional PD-1 pathway blockade.
COM701 is in Phase 1 clinical trials in patients with advanced solid tumors, to evaluate monotherapy and combination therapy with a PD-1 inhibitor.