IL-18
Understanding Our Treatment Candidates
Enhanced IL-18 is an innovative variant of IL-18 engineered to evade binding with IL-18BP, thus aiming to unleash the full therapeutic potential of the IL-18 pathway for cancer treatment.
The Challenge:
IL-18, a proinflammatory cytokine, can activate several types of immune cells that are important for fighting cancer. In clinical trials, IL-18 has been found to be well-tolerated by patients as an immunotherapy, but its lack of efficacy has stalled its progress. The efficacy of IL-18 breaks down due to the rapid upregulation of IL-18BP (or IL-18 binding protein), a ‘checkpoint protein’ which binds with IL-18 and neutralizes and inhibits IL-18 signaling.
Our Design:
Our innovative variant of IL-18 is engineered to evade binding with IL-18BP, thus aiming to unleash the full therapeutic potential of the IL-18 pathway for cancer treatment.
Our IL-18 program is currently in discovery.