Novel Treatment Shows Promising Antitumor Activity Against HER2+ Cancers

Preclinical data on GDA-501, a novel, genetically modified, nicotinamide (NAM) natural killer (NK) pre-clinical cell therapy, shows successful expansion of NK cells, enhanced functionality, increased cytotoxic activity, and a protective effect against oxidative stress and improved homing to targeted blood and solid tumor cancers, according to a Gamida Cell press release.

GDA-501 is genetically modified with a chimeric antigen receptor to target human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) by optimizing downstream signaling, which directly enhances GDA-501 cytotoxicity.

These findings were presented at the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer’s 37th Annual Meeting. In the poster presentation titled “Engineered NAM-NK cells with HER2-CAR expression demonstrate increased cytotoxicity against HER2-expressing solid tumors,” GDA-501 showed significantly enhanced and persistent in vitro cytotoxicity and potency when cultured with HER2-positive (HER2+) targeted cancer cells. Additionally, cryopreserved GDA-501 was found to significantly inhibit tumor growth in a HER2+ solid tumor model in vivo.

These data show potent antitumor activity and indicate that GDA-501 is a unique potential treatment option using an allogeneic NAM-enabled cell therapy candidate for patients with cancers that express HER2, according to Gamida Cell.

“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 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, PhD, vice president, Research and Development at Gamida Cell, in a press release. “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.”

NAM technology is designed to enhance the number and functionality of targeted cells. It also expands and metabolically modulates multiple cell types, including stem and NK cells, with appropriate growth factors to maintain the cells’ active phenotype and enhance potency.

REFERENCE

GDA-501, NAM enabled NK Cell Therapy, Demonstrates Promising Antitumor Activity Against HER2+ Cancers. Gamida Cell. November 7, 2022. Accessed November 8, 2022. https://investors.gamida-cell.com/news-events/press-releases/news-release-details/gda-501-nam-enabled-nk-cell-therapy-demonstrates