On November 7, 2022 Gamida Cell Ltd. (Nasdaq: GMDA), the global leader in the development of NAM-enabled cell therapies for patients with solid and hematological cancers and other serious diseases, reported encouraging preclinical data on GDA-501, a genetically modified NAM (nicotinamide) Natural Killer (NK) pre-clinical cell therapy candidate from Gamida Cell’s expanding pipeline of cell therapy candidates (Press release, Gamida Cell, NOV 7, 2022, View Source [SID1234623301]). The data will be presented at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) (Free SITC Whitepaper)’s 37th Annual Meeting taking place in Boston, MA from November 10-12, 2022.
Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo!
Discover why more than 1,500 members use 1stOncology™ to excel in:
Early/Late Stage Pipeline Development - Target Scouting - Clinical Biomarkers - Indication Selection & Expansion - BD&L Contacts - Conference Reports - Combinatorial Drug Settings - Companion Diagnostics - Drug Repositioning - First-in-class Analysis - Competitive Analysis - Deals & Licensing
Schedule Your 30 min Free Demo!
NK cells have generated significant interest as potential new treatment options for patients with cancers. In pre-clinical and clinical studies, Gamida Cell’s proprietary NAM technology has demonstrated successful expansion of NK cells, enhanced functionality, increased cytotoxic activity as well as creating a protective effect against oxidative stress and improved homing to targeted blood and solid tumor cancers.
"Our proprietary NAM technology enhances desirable cancer fighting qualities across a broad range of innate and adaptive cell types, including NK cells. As shown in our SITC (Free SITC Whitepaper) poster, by optimizing downstream signaling we were able to directly enhance NK cell activity resulting in potent cytotoxicity against HER2-expressing cells. These results suggest that GDA-501 represents a unique allogeneic cell therapy candidate potentially targeting HER2+ solid tumors," said Yona Geffen, Ph.D., Vice President, Research and Development at Gamida Cell. "These data further validate our NAM technology and our pipeline of genetically modified NK cell therapy candidates that offer the potential to improve clinical outcomes for patients with cancers, including cancers that express HER2."
The success of immune cell therapies has been limited in solid tumors due to multiple barriers, including immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment, inefficient trafficking, and heterogeneity of tumor antigens. In a poster presentation titled, "Engineered NAM-NK cells with HER2-CAR expression demonstrate increased cytotoxicity against HER2-expressing solid tumors", GDA-501, a genetically modified HER2-CAR NAM-NK cell, displayed significantly enhanced and persistent in vitro cytotoxicity and potency when cultured with HER2+ targeted cancer cells. Cryopreserved GDA-501 significantly inhibited tumor growth of a HER2+ solid tumor model in vivo. These preclinical data demonstrate potent antitumor activity and suggest that GDA-501 represents a unique potential treatment option using an allogeneic NAM-enabled cell therapy candidate for this poor prognostic group of patients with cancers that express HER2.
The GDA-501 poster (abstract #273) will be presented in Hall C on Thursday, November 10, 2022, from 9:00 AM EST to 9:00 PM EST. The poster presentation is publicly available at www.sitcancer.org.
About NAM Technology
Our NAM-enabling technology is designed to enhance the number and functionality of targeted cells, enabling us to pursue a curative approach that moves beyond what is possible with existing therapies. Leveraging the unique properties of NAM (nicotinamide), we can expand and metabolically modulate multiple cell types — including stem cells and natural killer cells — with appropriate growth factors to maintain the cells’ active phenotype and enhance potency. Additionally, our NAM technology improves the metabolic fitness of cells, allowing for continued activity throughout the expansion process.
About GDA-501
Gamida Cell expanded the use of its NAM-enabled technology to create GDA-501, an allogeneic innate NK cell therapy candidate for the potential treatment of HER2+ solid tumors. Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) is a tyrosine kinase receptor growth-promoting protein expressed on the surface of many types of tumors including breast, gastric, lung and colorectal cancers.1 GDA-501 is genetically modified with a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) to target HER2 by optimizing downstream signaling which directly enhances GDA-501 cytotoxicity. In vitro data demonstrated potent cytotoxicity against HER2-expressing cells. As a result, HER2-CAR may be used to target multiple HER2+ solid tumors. For more information about GDA-501, please visit View Source