Cantargia presents promising preclinical results on a novel IL1RAP-targeting antibody-drug conjugate at AACR 2025.
Cantargia (Cantargia AB (publ); Nasdaq Stockholm: CANTA) today announced an upcoming presentation of preclinical data on the development of IL1RAP-targeting antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). ADCs are already making a difference to cancer patients’ lives e.g. HER2-targeted ADCs in breast cancer, and the search for new targets is a high priority. Cantargia’s IL1RAP ADCs exploit IL1RAP expression by tumor cells and other cells in the tumor microenvironment (TME) to deliver toxic drugs into the tumor. The findings demonstrated safety, tolerability, and significant anti-tumor efficacy of IL1RAP targeting ADCs in preclinical animal models, suggesting promising therapeutic potential across a broad range of cancers expressing ILRAP.
The abstract is now published on the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) website and the data will be presented at the AACR Annual Meeting April 25-30, 2025.
“Cantargia’s IL1RAP platform technology can be used to generate new programs in addition to our nadunolimab and CAN10 clinical programs. These new data show how a novel anti-IL1RAP antibody can be combined with a cytotoxic payload to yield a highly potent and safe ADC.”, said David Liberg, Chief Scientific Officer of Cantargia. “We are looking forward to presenting these data on the upcoming AACR conference.”
ADCs consist of a monoclonal antibody conjugated to a potent cytotoxic payload (drug) and thereby connects the selective targeting of antibodies with the cell killing abilities of chemotherapy. ADCs have brought substantial advancements in cancer therapy, offering significant benefits to patients. They are designed to target tumor cells with precision while minimizing damage to healthy cells. Many solid tumor types show increased expression of IL1RAP, both on tumor cells and on cells of the TME. Leveraging this tumor-specificity, IL1RAP-targeting ADCs, designed to selectively target IL1RAP-expressing cells, are being explored as a precision therapy for cancer.
In the presented work an antibody, screened and selected from Cantargia’s library of IL1RAP-binding antibodies, was conjugated to a tubulin-targeting cytotoxic payload. The conjugation to the payload did not compromise binding of the antibody to IL1RAP-expressing cells and the IL1RAP-targeting ADC showed IL1RAP-dependent tumor cell killing. The IL1RAP ADC was well tolerated and effectively suppressed tumor growth in all the animal models tested.
These preclinical results suggest that ADCs targeting IL1RAP may have promising therapeutic potential and Cantargia is looking forward to further optimizing and advancing the IL1RAP-targeting ADCs for use across a broad spectrum of cancers.
The studies involving anti-IL1RAP ADCs were performed in collaboration with ImmunoGen (now part of AbbVie), more details on the anti-IL1RAP ADC can be found in the abstract text.
The abstract title and texts will be posted onto the AACR online itinerary planner for the upcoming annual meeting in Chicago, IL on Apr 25-30, 2025., which can be found at https://www.aacr.org/meeting/aacr-annual-meeting-2025/meeting-resources/