Immunome, Inc. announced that it is presenting a poster at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer's (SITC) 37th Annual Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts highlighting the Company's preclinical data of IMM20059, a novel anti-epsin 1(EPN1) antibody. Lack of response and immunoresistance to checkpoint inhibitors is a well-known challenge in cancer treatment. While the epsin-1 protein is known to be upregulated in a variety of tumor types, it can also be ectopically expressed on the tumor cell surface, as demonstrated in Immunome's poster, offeringanew approach to cancer therapy.

Insights into the role of epsin-1 as a potential target for cancer is evolving, but research by others also suggests targeting EPN1 has the potential to inhibt tumor growth. The findings presented by Immunome at SITC further suggest that combining an EPN1-targeting antibody, like IMM20059, with checkpoint inhibitor treatment could reactivate or increase immune response to the tumor. The poster presentation, IMM20059, a novel anti-EPN1 antibody, in combination with atezolizumab significantly enhances tumor regression in the B16.F10 syngeneic melanoma model compared to anti-PD-L1 monotherapy, highlights novel discoveries related to combinatorial activity between existing immune checkpoint inhibitors and the novel tumor target epsin 1 (EPN1).

Immunome's preclinical research of IMM20059 in this poster demonstrated that: PN1 is upregulated in multiple cancers and is ectopically expressed on tumor cell surfaces. IMM20059 binds with high affinity to both purified EPN1 protein and to the surface of B16.F10 melanoma tumor cells. In the combination treatment of IMM20059 and anti-PD-L1 atezolizumab, significant tumor regression was induced compared to IMM20059 or atezolizumab treatment alone, suggesting a combinatorial effect between the two anti-tumoral pathways.

Combination treatment enhanced the production of intratumoral chemokines, MIP-1a, MIP-1b, and RANTES.