Abstract 561: Discovery of a potential best-in-class anti-CD38 therapeutic utilizing Fc multimerization (2019)

CD38 targeting antibodies are at different phases of clinical development, with daratumumab already approved as monotherapy and in combination with standards of care in multiple myeloma (MM). Anti-CD38 monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) induce tumor cell depletion in part by Fc-dependent effector mechanisms such as antibody dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC), antibody dependent cellular phagocytosis (ADCP), and complement dependent cytotoxicity (CDC). However, not all MM patients achieve minimal residual disease (MRD)-negativity and similar clinical response. In addition, some patients on daratumumab develop resistance due to reduced cell surface CD38 and high levels of complement inhibitors (CD55 and CD59). We have leveraged Fc multimerization technology (Ortiz et al Sci Transl Med. 2016; 8: 365) to generate an optimized platform (SIF; selective immunomodulator of Fc receptors) that utilizes the valency effect of Fc multimerization to enhance binding to the Fcγ receptors and complement. We combined the Fab-region of CD38 targeting mAb to SIF platform to generate an anti-CD38 SIFbody to enhance immune and complement mediated cytotoxicity against tumor cells. In several human tumor cell line-based cytotoxic assays using primary human effector cells (NK cells and macrophages) and complement, the anti-CD38 SIFbody demonstrates up to 10-fold increase in efficacy and ≥16-fold increase in potency compared to daratumumab and the surrogate therapeutic anti-CD38 mAb (TAK-079). In isolated whole human blood incubated with tumor cells, the anti-CD38 SIFbody demonstrated 40-100 fold increase in potency and 2-3 fold increase in efficacy. In bone marrow cells isolated from MM patients with >80% plasma cells anti-CD38 SIFbody showed better potency and a 3-5 fold increased efficacy (with 100% plasma cell elimination) than daratumumab, suggesting the SIFbody may be more suitable molecule for achieving greater MRD-negativity rates in MM patients. Daratumumab fails to induce CDC against tumor cell lines with low CD38 and high CD55 and CD59, however the SIFbody achieves 100% efficacy in such settings, suggesting this molecule may be effective in patients who are developing resistance to treatment. In single dose pharmacodynamic and tolerability studies in cynomolgus monkeys SIFbody demonstrated up to 5-fold increase in B cell depletion from peripheral blood compared to TAK-079 across all dose ranges (0.3, 1, & 3 mg/kg) tested without any adverse events. Therefore, by leveraging our Fc multimerization technology we have generated a differentiated potential best-in-class anti-CD38 therapeutic.Citation Format: Amit Choudhury, Daniel F. Ortiz, Shannon Argueta, Kevin Garofalo, Jonathan C. Lansing, Utsav Jetley, Danice Wilkins, Carlos Bosques, Edward Cochran, Naveen Bhatnagar, Jay Duffner, Abhinav Gupta, Stan Lee, Karunya Srinivasan, Viraj Parge, Radouane Zouaoui, Jason Wang, Anthony M. Manning. Discovery of a potential best-in-class anti-CD38 therapeutic utilizing Fc multimerization [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 561.