On April 8, 2022 Arcellx, Inc. (NASDAQ: ACLX), a biotechnology company reimagining cell therapy through the development of innovative immunotherapies for patients with cancer and other incurable diseases, reported the presentation of preclinical data utilizing its novel ARC-SparX platform for ACLX-002, a CD123-targeted universal CAR-T cell therapy for relapsed or refractory Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML) and high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) (Press release, Arcellx, APR 8, 2022, View Source [SID1234611789]). The data show that ACLX-002 completely regressed disseminated MOLM14 and MV4-11 tumors in a schedule and dose-dependent manner without the aid of alloreactivity and performs similarly to a traditional CD123-targeting D-domain based CAR. Additionally, ACLX-002 completely regresses multiple cell line and patient-derived AML xenografts.

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"There are limited treatment options for AML and MDS patients as heterogeneity is known to be a major challenge for targeted therapeutics in this patient population," said Rami Elghandour, Arcellx’s chairman and chief executive officer. "Our ARC-SparX platform is designed to allow for controllability and adaptability, to potentially reduce toxicities that are often associated with serious dose-limiting adverse events and to overcome tumor heterogeneity. These ACLX-002 preclinical data provide the scientific rationale to move forward with initiating a Phase 1 clinical trial and our ambition to deliver a meaningful treatment option for these patients. We look forward to starting this study in the second half of this year."

The data are being presented at the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting taking place April 8-13, 2022. Presentation details are as follows:

The poster can be accessed through the AACR (Free AACR Whitepaper) Annual Meeting program or the company’s corporate website www.arcellx.com/pipeline-focus-area/#scientific-publications

About the ARC-SparX Platform Technology
The ARC-SparX platform is designed to allow for controllability and adaptability, to potentially reduce toxicities that are often associated with serious dose-limiting adverse events and to overcome tumor heterogeneity. It is a modular therapy which utilizes a universal ARC-T cell combined with an off the shelf SparX protein to separate the tumor-recognition and tumor-killing functions. SparX (soluble protein antigen-receptor X-linkers) proteins utilize our D-Domain technology engineered to recognize antigens on the surface of diseased cells and flags those cells for detection by the ARC-T (Antigen Receptor Complex-T) cells. ARC-T cells express a D-Domain-based CAR engineered to specifically recognize a unique TAG in the SparX protein. ARC-T cells are dosed separately and only activated to kill the target cell when they encounter a SparX protein bound to the target antigen thus are controlled through SparX dose modulation. Arcellx has developed a collection of SparX proteins that bind different antigens on the surface of diseased cells. Multiple SparX proteins with different antigen specificity can be administered to potentially address antigen heterogeneity or antigen escape that contribute to relapsed and refractory disease.