Abstract CT239: Clinical and preclinical evidence of an immune modulating role for the STAT3-targeting ASO AZD9150 and potential to enhance clinical responses to anti-PDL1 therapy
Authors: Mccoon Patricia E. , Woessner Rich , Grosskurth Shaun , Womack Chris , Yamashita Mason , Hung Gene , MacLeod Robert , Bell Kirsten , Collins Mike , DuPont Rachel , Jacobs Vivian , Johnstone Michele , Veldman-Jones Margaret , Lyne Paul 
Published: August 2015

AZD9150 is a therapeutic Generation 2.5 antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) targeting STAT3 that has completed two phase I clinical studies, in patients with HCC and DLBCL, with durable clinical responses seen in both trials. Biomarker studies using patient samples and related preclinical experiments were performed to investigate the mechanism of action of AZD9150. Patients were treated with three loading doses of AZD9150 in the first week followed by weekly dosing, at doses ranging from 1.0 to 3.0 mg/kg. In the DLBCL study, paired tumor biopsies were collected pre-treatment and on-treatment to evaluate drug uptake and target knockdown by immunohistochemistry (IHC). In the HCC study, blood samples were collected at baseline and at multiple time points on-treatment to evaluate target knockdown and gene expression changes.

IHC staining of DLBCL patients’ tumor biopsies (at 2 & 3 mg/kg) demonstrated that the drug distributes to the tumor, with strongest uptake in stromal cells, including endothelium, fibroblasts, and immune cells. Pronounced decreases (absence of staining on-treatment) in STAT3 were observed in the endothelium of several samples. More limited STAT3 modulation was observed in tumor cells. Flow cytometry analysis of HCC patients’ blood samples revealed an average decrease in STAT3 protein staining of 49% across all peripheral leukocyte populations in the 1 mg/kg cohort.

Clinical pharmacodynamics and mechanism of action were explored further by conducting a gene expression study with the Nanostring nCounter Human Immunology Panel v2 to evaluate STAT3 RNA knockdown and 593 additional immune genes in peripheral leukocytes collected from HCC patients. Statistically significant decreases of &gt;30% in STAT3 expression were observed in 14/32 patients by the fourth week of treatment. These STAT3 changes are accompanied by +/- 40% changes in expression by additional genes associated with decreased myeloid trafficking and function, increased antigen presentation, and increased CD8 effector cell function. These data provide evidence that AZD9150 treatment may remove or reprogram immunosuppressive elements employed by tumors, leading to therapeutic benefit.

Preclinical studies were carried out to investigate immune cell changes within tumors and the benefit of combining STAT3 ASO with PDL1 blockade. Monotherapy STAT3 ASO treatment resulted in CT26 tumor growth inhibition (80%) when tested in immune competent Balb/c but not immune-deficient NSG mice, and was associated with two-fold increases in CD45+ and CD8+ cell infiltrate into tumors. Mice treated with STAT3 ASO and anti-PD-L1 blocking antibody resulted in a 50% response rate for the combination treatment, vs. only 14% with anti-PD-L1 Ab alone.

These data suggest that the effects of STAT3 ASO are mechanistically complementary to immune checkpoint inhibitors and that the combination with AZD9150 could broaden clinical responses to these important therapies. This hypothesis will be tested in upcoming clinical trials with AZD9150 and MEDI4736.

Citation Format: Patricia E. Mccoon, Rich Woessner, Shaun Grosskurth, Chris Womack, Mason Yamashita, Gene Hung, Robert MacLeod, Kirsten Bell, Mike Collins, Rachel DuPont, Vivian Jacobs, Michele Johnstone, Margaret Veldman-Jones, Paul Lyne. Clinical and preclinical evidence of an immune modulating role for the STAT3-targeting ASO AZD9150 and potential to enhance clinical responses to anti-PDL1 therapy. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr CT239. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-CT239