Approach

Taking our lessons from the immune system, we develop highly selective therapeutics.

Expanding the range of immunotherapy options has been challenging for a number of reasons, including on-target/off-tumor activity, an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment, and the cost and time constraints of personalized treatment.

TMAb™ Platform

Disables checkpoints and other immunosuppressive signals in the tumor microenvironment to unleash existing T cells against tumors

Our Challenge

T cells are often present in the tumor microenvironment, but inactivated and limited to the periphery—making the tumor T cell-excluded and unlikely to trigger an immune response, or “cold.” Attempts to activate existing T cells must ensure sufficient drug delivery to the TME while avoiding on-target off-tumor effects in the periphery to inactivate primary or secondary immune checkpoints.

Our Strategy

The Tumor Microenvironment Activated Biologics platform (TMAb) discovers and develops antibodies that bind their targets only in the low-pH conditions characteristic of the tumor microenvironment. This strategy can also be designed around characteristics of the tumor microenvironment beyond low pH, such as redox potential and extracellular ATP concentration.

The Benefit

By preventing these unwanted interactions beyond the TME, TMAbs increase the amount of drug reaching the tumor and avoid triggering toxic side effects, including cytokine release syndrome.

The Result

This enables antibodies to reach their intended targets (immunosuppressive proteins on macrophages and other myeloid cells immediately surrounding the tumor) without interacting with corresponding targets in the bloodstream and other body compartments.

The Outcome

By blocking checkpoints and diminishing other sources of immunosuppression in the tumor microenvironment, TMAbs encourage T cell penetration and killing activity, turning these cold, T cell-excluded tumors hot.

Presentations

SITC 2022: Preclinical data for SNS-102

Functional characterization of the inhibitory activity and identification of novel T-cell receptors for the tumor-associated macrophage receptor VSIG4.

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SITC 2022: Preclinical data for SNS-101

SNS-101, a highly pH-selective VISTA:PSGL-1 inhibitory antibody, potentiates anti-PD-1 sensitivity, expands memory T-cells and enhances tumor infiltration of CD8 T-cells.

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