ChabioTech and Cha Vaccine Institute Jointly Develop NK Cell Therapy for Cancer Treatment

Cha Biotech announced on the 4th that it will collaborate with its subsidiary, Cha Vaccine Institute, to jointly develop anticancer therapies aimed at enhancing the activity and anticancer effects of natural killer (NK) cell therapies.

Cha Biotech plans to co-culture NK cells with 'L-pampo,' an immune enhancer independently developed by Cha Vaccine Institute, to confirm the strengthening of NK cell immune responses and the resulting increase in anticancer effects. They intend to analyze various activating and inhibitory factors of NK cells that appear when the two substances are co-cultured and evaluate anticancer efficacy to develop a new NK cell therapy.

L-pampo is a complex of TLR2 and TLR3, which are 'ligands' that specifically bind to receptors. It stimulates the 'Toll-like receptors (TLRs),' intracellular proteins involved in the body's innate immunity, activating immune cells within the body to induce an immune response. When used as a vaccine formulation, it serves as an immune enhancer that increases the immunogenicity of antigens, and when used as an immuno-oncology agent, it induces cancer cell death and transforms the tumor microenvironment from low immunogenicity to high immunogenicity. The two companies expect that L-pampo will react with TLR2 and TLR3 expressed on NK cells, thereby increasing NK cell activity and enhancing anticancer effects.

Hyun-Jung Lee, CEO of Cha Biotech, said, “To expand and strengthen the pipeline of NK cell therapies under development, we are pursuing various combination therapies with immuno-oncology agents and antibodies. Since Cha Vaccine Institute has already confirmed the anticancer effects of combining immune checkpoint inhibitors with L-pampo in preclinical studies, we believe that utilizing it together with NK cells will enable the development of new anticancer therapies.”

Jung-Sun Yeom, CEO of Cha Vaccine Institute, also stated, “Cha Vaccine Institute has already confirmed the tumor suppressive ability of L-pampo in several cancer types, including colorectal, pancreatic, and bladder cancers. Through joint research with Cha Biotech, we hope to develop new therapies targeting cancers with high unmet medical needs and no current treatments.”