In May, Vaxil BioTherapeutics Ltd., a private clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, announced that its researchers had published pre-clinical results from ImMucin, Vaxil’s lead therapeutic cancer vaccine, in the May edition of the scientific journal Vaccine.
The article entitled “ImMucin: a novel therapeutic vaccine with promiscuous MHC binding for the treatment of MUC1-expressing tumors”. Like a traditional vaccine, ImMucin helps the body’s immune system fight off bacteria or viruses — but unlike common vaccine, ImMucin is administered to people who are already sick.
ImMucin activates the immune system by
“training” T-cells which protect the body by
searching out and destroying cells that display a specific molecule called MUC1. MUC1 is generally found only on cancer cells and
not on healthy cells. The implications of this are that the T-cells won’t attack any cells that don’t contain MUC1, which means that the patient won’t experience the side effects which one experiences with traditional cancer treatments. With more than 90% of cancers having MUC1 on their cells, the implications could be groundbreaking.
In September, Vaxil also announced that it had
submitted a patent application to the United States Patent Office dealing with a novel use of signal peptides and naturally
generated auto-antibodies which would allow them to detect illnesses such as cancer earlier and provide a prognosis.
Dr. Lior Carmon, founder and CEO said in the press release in Nes-Ziona, “We have succeeded in identifying a
novel way to detect cancer onset and progression. This is an invaluable
tool which will significantly enhance our ability to provide effective
relief to these patients who are eligible to be treated with ImMucin and
is yet another validation of our VaxHit technology.”
ImMucin is
currently being evaluated in a Phase I/II clinical trial in Multiple
Myeloma patients at Hadassah Medical Center, Jerusalem. ImMucin is
potentially applicable to over 90% of all types of cancer, including
both solid and non-solid tumors. The vaccine aims to activate a compromised immune system and mobilize against the threat.
