Northwest Biotherapeutics awards cancer target manufacturing contract to Protein Sciences

Northwest Biotherapeutics Inc. (Bothell, WA) has selected Protein Sciences Corp. (Meriden, CT) to develop a high-yield expression vector for production of DCVax, Northwest's kidney cancer-specific protein for treating renal cell carcinoma. Protein Sciences will apply GeneXpress, its program for rapid development of clinical-quality recombinant protein expression systems, with the goal of producing enough DCVax to begin human clinical trials in kidney cancer patients.

"This represents an important next step in extending our company's proprietary dendritic cell-based immunotherapy, DCVax, to other cancers with limited treatment options," stated Alton L. Boynton, Northwest Biotherapeutics' executive vice president and chief science officer.

DCVax—harnessing the patient's own immune response

Like other cancer vaccines, DCVax seeks to harness the patient's own immune system cells to fight the disease. Northwest's strategy revolves around dendritic cells (see figure above), immune system cells found in tissues such as bone marrow and blood. Dendritic cells typically seek out and destroy foreign invaders like bacteria or viruses by capturing the invaders' surface antigens. Dendritic cells also interact with T-cells, another group of immune system cells used to combat infection. A growing body of evidence suggests that dendritic cells may also be used to fight cancer.

Through DCVax (see figure), dendritic cells are harvested from the patient and innoculated with colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and interleukin-4 to prime them to fight cancer. After culturing, cells are re-introduced into the patient, where Northwest hopes they will offer hope in cases of refractory or metastatic prostate (and other) cancers that have stopped responding to hormone therapy.

DCVax is currently being evaluated as a treatment for late-stage prostate cancer at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center (Houston) and the University of California (Los Angeles), where patients are continuing to be recruited. Northwest is also continuing pre-clinical evaluation of DCVax for treating non-small cell lung cancer and glioblastoma, a lethal form of brain cancer.

For more information: Alton Boynton, Chief Scientist, Northwest Biotherapeutics, 21720 23rd Dr. SE, Suite 100 Bothell, WA 98021. Tel: 425-608-3000. Fax: 425-608-3026.

Edited by Angelo DePalma
Managing Editor, Drug Discovery Online and Pharmaceutical Online
Email: adepalma@vertical.net