AbClon Presents AT501 and AM105 at AACR... "Proposing Innovative Cancer Treatment Approaches"

Appclon announced on the 11th that it participated in the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) from the 5th to the 10th (local time) and presented the latest research results on the anticancer drug candidates AT501 and AM105. The presentation was delivered by Professor Junho Jeong of Seoul National University, who conducted joint research with the company.

AT501 is being developed as a next-generation solid tumor treatment. It combines a new concept of a ‘switch CAR-T (chimeric antigen receptor T-cell) therapy platform’ that uses a ‘switch’ to detect and track cancer targets. Although global pharmaceutical companies are developing CAR-T therapies for solid tumors, progress has been slow due to barriers such as accessibility, therapeutic efficacy, and durability.

Appclon devised a HER2 switch that specifically tracks cancer proteins in solid tumors. When administered together with the switch CAR-T therapy, strong and sustained anticancer activity was confirmed in animal models. This represents an innovative approach completely different from existing CAR-T therapies, and it is explained that in both responsive and recurrent models, simply administering an additional switch can boost the drug’s efficacy again to completely suppress the cancer.

The company stated, “Solid tumors are difficult to treat due to multiple tumor antigens, but Appclon develops switch molecules for each cancer and applies the switch CAR-T platform to simultaneously demonstrate multiple therapeutic effects,” adding, “This will be a new breakthrough overcoming the limitations of existing CAR-T therapies.”

AM105 is a bispecific antibody therapeutic developed based on the bispecific antibody platform technology AffiMab. It simultaneously binds to the tumor protein epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and the T-cell immune stimulator CD137 to effectively eliminate cancer cells. Appclon’s ‘Nest’ platform was utilized in the development of the EGFR antibody applied to AM105. Unlike existing antibody therapies, this antibody can treat patients with therapeutic resistance mutations.

Additionally, AM105 expanded the CD137 binding sites to four, showing excellent efficacy in immune cell recruitment and T-cell activation. It has characteristics that do not impair productivity and stability, making commercialization expected to be easier.

An Appclon representative emphasized, “AT501 and AM105, presented at this year’s AACR, are the first examples of next-generation therapeutic platform technologies,” and added, “They can be expanded and combined depending on the type of refractory solid tumors, making them an innovative anticancer treatment approach.”