Findings from a long-term follow-up of a Phase I/II trial of GV1001 in NSCLC patients guided the
design and composition of UV1, which can be considered a second-generation hTERT vaccine that
is distinct and unrelated to GV1001. Blood samples from these long-term survivors in the trial
showed expression not only of GV1001-specific T-cells, but also T-cells primed to distinctly different hTERT-derived peptides, which were not part of the GV1001 vaccine.
**Crucially, the patients, who had these T-cells primed for non-GV1001 hTERT-derived peptides also demonstrated improved survival. **
The patients, who did not have these T-cells, did not show the clinical benefit from the
vaccination, although they did demonstrate T-cell response against GV1001 peptide. UV1 consists
of these peptides (hTERT691-705, hTERT660-689 and hTERT652-665).
Ultimovacs’ hypothesis is that because T-cell responses against these peptides were only observed in patients with favourable clinical course, it indicates these specific peptides could be responsible for the tumour eradication in patients.
The three long peptides that UV1 consists of have been shown to contain multiple T-cell epitopes
that can fit with the HLA type of the vaccinated patient. Data from numerous patients’ samples
indicated there is no HLA bias and immune responses against the vaccine peptides occur across
multiple HLA allele types (the peptides are promiscuous with respect to HLA). Therefore, the UV1
vaccine peptides ensure broad population coverage, circumventing the need for HLA screening.
Så og si uangripelig rasjonale for at det skal fungere, og det meste tyder på at det gjør det. Gleder meg til bittelitt mer å henge på knaggen når de oppdatere keytruda-dataene.
Jeg sier det det bare fordi tanken slo meg i går.
