BioCentury
ARTICLE | Distillery Therapeutics

Therapeutics: CD38

October 29, 2015 7:00 AM UTC

Patient, cell culture and mouse studies suggest CD38 inhibitors could help treat solid tumors, which are frequently infiltrated by CD38-expressing myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) that enable immune evasion. The fraction of CD38-expressing peripheral blood mononuclear cells was higher in patients with advanced head and neck cancer and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) than in healthy controls. In MDSCs from a mouse model of esophageal cancer, an anti-CD38 mAb decreased viability compared with an isotype control antibody. In the mouse models, the anti-CD38 mAb decreased tumor growth. Next steps include testing the effects of systemic administration of anti-CD38 mAbs in mouse models of other solid tumor types.

Genmab A/S and Johnson & Johnson have daratumumab, an anti-CD38 mAb, in registration for multiple myeloma (MM)...