Results to be presented during the developmental immunotherapy and tumor immunobiology session at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2019 Annual Meeting
CHICAGO, IL & CULVER CITY, CA – June 3, 2019 NantWorks, LLC today announced that its affiliate companies, NantHealth, Inc., (NASDAQ: NH), a leading next-generation, evidence-based, personalized healthcare company, and NantOmics, LLC, the leader in molecular analyses, will present findings on how patients with tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) and silenced neoepitopes may benefit from epigenetic priming therapy prior to immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI) therapy during the developmental immunotherapy and tumor immunobiology session at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2019 Annual Meeting, an event bringing together 30,000 oncology professionals from May 31 – June 4, 2019 at McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois. NantHealth and NantOmics conducted this study with researchers from University of California San Diego’s Moores Cancer Center. NantWorks will be exhibiting at booth #24080 during the event.
“By determining if immunogenicity of certain DNA variants factor into suppression, our data show that when tumor infiltrating immune cells are activated, silencing neoepitopes may be an alternative to checkpoint expression for avoiding an immune cascade,” said Sandeep “Bobby” Reddy, MD, Chief Medical Officer, NantHealth.. “We’re excited to share this data and look forward to further exploring how epigenetic priming therapy prior to ICI therapy may benefit patients with TILs.”
Presentation Details
Evidence for selective silencing of MHC-binding neoepitopes to avoid immune surveillance, Abstract #2591
WHO: NantHealth, Inc. and NantOmics, LLC
WHAT: Developmental Immunotherapy and Tumor Immunobiology
WHEN: June 1, 8:00-11:00 AM CST
WHERE: Hall A, McCormick Place
Presentation Summary
Overall response rates to immune checkpoint inhibition (ICI) are < 50% even in TMB-high patients (e.g. Checkmate-227), suggesting other mechanisms of immune escape exist beyond expressing checkpoints. At least 18% of somatic-specific exonic DNA variants are not expressed into mRNA (Rabizadeh, 2018), yet the selection criteria for which variants to silence remains unclear. This study sought to determine if immunogenicity of variants factor into their suppression. In the analysis, 1418 clinical cases with paired tumor/normal whole-exome (~150x coverage) and whole-transcriptome (200×106 reads) were available from the NantHealth database. TMB was calculated by counting somatic-specific non-synonymous exonic mutations. All possible 9-mer neoepitopes resulting from SNV or INDEL variants were generated and assessed for immunogenicity by NetMHC-4.0. Neoepitopes were designated as non-expressed if fewer than 2 RNA reads supported the generating variant. Immune-cell infiltration was estimated using RNA deconvolution on known immune cell marker genes (Bindea et al. 2013). The study observed significant preferential silencing of MHC binding neoepitopes. Specifically, when tumor infiltrating immune cells are activated, silencing neoepitopes may be an alternative to checkpoint expression for avoiding an immune cascade. Patients with TILs and silenced neoepitopes may benefit from epigenetic priming therapy prior to ICI therapy.
About NantHealth:
NantHealth, a member of the NantWorks ecosystem of companies, provides leading solutions across the continuum of care for physicians, payers, patients and biopharmaceutical organizations. NantHealth enables the use of cutting edge data and technology towards the goal of empowering clinical decision support and improving patient outcomes. NantHealth’s comprehensive product portfolio combines the latest technology in molecular analysis (GPS Cancer® and Liquid GPS®), payer/provider platforms that exchange information in near-real time (NaviNet and Eviti), and connected care solutions that deliver Medical Device Interoperability (MDI). NantHealth’s GPS Cancer® molecular profiling provides comprehensive DNA & RNA tumor-normal profiling combined with pharmacogenomics analysis. Liquid GPS® provides non-invasive testing of cfDNA and cfRNA to monitor cancer mutations and potentially select targeted therapies, chemotherapies, and immunotherapies. For more information, please visit www.nanthealth.com.
About NantOmics:
NantOmics, a member of the NantWorks ecosystem of companies, invented and developed the technologies that drive NantHealth’s GPS Cancer® platform. GPS Cancer® provides actionable intelligence and molecularly driven decision support for cancer patients and their providers at the point of care. NantOmics is the first molecular analysis company to pioneer an integrated approach to unearthing molecular variances and profiles that initiate and drive cancer, by analyzing both normal and tumor cells from the same patient and following identified variances from DNA to RNA to protein to drug. Having pioneered tumor-normal DNA sequencing and introduced whole RNA transcriptomic analysis to better inform clinical treatment decisions, NantOmics has provided molecular insights for thousands of cancer patients.
NantOmics has a highly scalable cloud-based infrastructure capable of storing and processing thousands of genomes a day, computing genomic variances in near real-time and correlating proteomic pathway analysis with quantitative gene expression and pharmacogenomic signatures, which guides the use of immunotherapies, chemotherapies and targeted therapies. Clinical studies for neoepitope vaccines using NantOmics’ proprietary technologies and novel artificial intelligence platforms are currently underway. For more information please visit www.nantomics.com.
About UC San Diego Health:
UC San Diego Health is one of five academic medical centers within the 10-campus University of California system. Collectively known as UC Health, these medical centers comprise the fourth largest healthcare delivery system in California and train nearly 50 percent of the state’s medical students and medical residents. As part of a public trust organization, UC Health serves as a safety net for individuals in need. Nearly 60 percent of UC patients are covered by Medicare, Medi-Cal or lack health insurance. For more information please visit www.ucsd.edu and health.ucsd.edu.