in patients with ovarian, fallopian tube and peritoneal cancers kicked off earlier this year.
Another way of directing IL-2 to tumor-reactive T cells involves cytokine–antibody fusions. At Roche, scientists have combined an IL-2 mutein, engineered to abolished α-chain binding, with various monoclonal antibodies designed to increase concentrations of the cytokine in the tumor microenvironment. Two such therapeutic candidates directed against tumor-associated antigens were abandoned after phase 1 testing in the mid-2010s.
One outside-the-box idea for channeling the immunotherapeutic power of IL-2 comes from Aulos Bioscience, a spinoff of Rehovot, Israel’s Biolojic Design. As CEO Aron Knickerbocker points out, the current pipeline of IL-2 muteins, mimetics and protein fusions may offer greater receptor selectivity and tumor targeting than the approved form of recombinant IL-2 — but “they only solve for part of the equation.