Abstract 2938: Preclinical development of a novel bispecific mAb-Trap fusion protein, IMM2902, targeting both HER2 and CD47 as cancer immunotherapy
Authors: Zhang Binglei , Li Song , Chen Dianze , Liu Dandan , Guo Huiqin , Yang Chunmei , Zhang Li , Zhang Wei , Tu Xiaoping , Peng Liang , Zhao Gui , Zhang Ruliang , Gan Frank X. , Tian Wenzhi , Zhang Fan , Song Yongping 
Published: April 2023

The overexpression of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) has been identified in a variety of solid tumors including breast cancer (BC), gastric cancer and is associated with tumor recurrence, brain metastasis, and an overall poor prognosis. As such, HER2 has become a major target in the research and development of anticancer drugs. CD47, an integrin-associated protein, is expressed in many human cancer cells, especially upregulated preferentially in HER2-expressing cells. Co-expression of HER2 and CD47 is more frequently detected in recurrent BC patients with poor prognosis when comparing with the counterpart primary tumors. IMM2902 is a first-in-class, clinical-stage, novel recombinant bispecific mAb-Trap fusion protein targeting both CD47 and HER2 simultaneously. The binding activities of IMM2902, measured as EC50, to total CD47+ and HER2+ in BT474, NCI-N87 and SKOV-3 cancer cell lines are 16, 11 and 5 nM respectively. The affinity of IMM2902 to HER2 is about 15 times higher than that of CD47. IMM2902 not only prevents the engagement of CD47 with SIRPα and hence blocks “don’t eat me” signal of CD47/SIRPα, but also induces strong antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC, EC50 = 0.0045 - 0.0544 nM) and antibody-dependent cellular phagocytosis (ADCP, EC50 = 0.05 - 0.13 nM) activity with specifically engineered IgG1 Fc fragment. Most importantly, IMM2902 induces accelerated HER2 degradation in tumor tissues. Despite its high affinity to CD47, IMM2902 does not binds to CD47 on erythrocyte membrane, therefore, unlike conventional CD47 mAb, IMM2902 demonstrated a minimal impact on red blood cells (RBC). In preclinical research, IMM2902 has demonstrated a much stronger antitumor activity with excellent tolerability in a mouse model of human breast cancer (dose range 3.5 - 10 mg/kg) and a mouse model of human gastric cancer (dose range 1 -18 mg/kg) than that of trastuzumab (targeting HER2 only) alone, IMM01 (a SIRPα-Fc fusion protein) alone, and the combination of trastuzumab and IMM01. In HER2-low SUN-1 xenograft models, IMM2902 has showed a strong tumor growth inhibition at doses between 2 to 18 mg/kg. Intriguingly, IMM2902 also has exhibited potent tumor killing activity against breast cancer resistant to trastuzumab (HCC-1954 and patient-derived xenografts herceptin-resistant model) at doses between 3.5 to 10 mg/kg. Given the strong preclinical antitumor activity as well as the favorable safety profile, IMM2902 may serve as a potent immunotherapy for HER2-expressing cancers via dual blockade of CD47 and HER2. A Phase 1 clinical trial exploring safety, tolerability, and preliminary efficacy of IMM2902 in patients with HER2-expressing advanced solid tumors is currently ongoing in both China (CXSL2101035) and USA (NCT05076591).

Citation Format: Binglei Zhang, Song Li, Dianze Chen, Dandan Liu, Huiqin Guo, Chunmei Yang, Li Zhang, Wei Zhang, Xiaoping Tu, Liang Peng, Gui Zhao, Ruliang Zhang, Frank X. Gan, Wenzhi Tian, Fan Zhang, Yongping Song. Preclinical development of a novel bispecific mAb-Trap fusion protein, IMM2902, targeting both HER2 and CD47 as cancer immunotherapy [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 2938.