Apclon Obtains US Patent for Zipper Switch... "Will Enhance Expandability of Switchable CART Therapy"

Appclon announced on the 22nd that it has obtained a U.S. patent for the Affibody zipper switch material. The Affibody zipper switch is used in the switchable CAR-T (zCAR-T) platform for regulating CAR-T cell activation.

Currently, zCAR-T uses a switch material that binds cotinine, a metabolite of nicotine, to the Affibody. Cotinine binds to CAR-T cells, and the Affibody binds to cancer cells, activating the CAR-T cells and inducing an anti-cancer effect. This is a core technology independently developed by Appclon to overcome the limitations of existing CAR-T cell therapies in treating solid tumors.

This patent covers a novel Affibody with broad scalability for manufacturing the switch material. Similar to zippers in clothing, this innovative switch material features Affibody-to-Affibody binding characteristics, which is expected to contribute to enhancing the scalability of zCAR-T therapeutics.

A company representative stated, “The Affibody is a material used in Appclon’s bispecific antibody platform ‘AffiMab,’ which is stable and highly productive in vivo. Through our library, we can discover Affibodies for specific purposes and apply their versatile characteristics to the zCAR-T switch material.”

They continued, “Research is also underway on dual CAR-T therapeutics that can bind to two epitopes on the target disease protein. Because it simultaneously targets two different sites on the disease protein, it can produce the effect of administering two types of CAR-T therapies at once.”

Furthermore, they emphasized, “Such dual CAR-T therapeutics are expected to show enhanced anti-cancer effects compared to existing CAR-T therapies at the same CAR-T cell concentration.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.