Pro-ligand conjugated to antibodies for improved treatment of cancers – PROLIGAND

Immunotherapy is applied to many tumors to inhibit the growth of cancer cells using recombinant antibodies directed against specific targets. Therapeutic efficacy may depend on antibody binding to inhibit target activity and/or stimulation of the main immune response pathways. Recently, the three partners of the project have shown the interest of using analogues of mannose 6-phosphate (called AMFA) grafted onto therapeutic antibodies. These analogues allow the transfer of pathogen targets inside cancer cells for their degradation.
In this project, we propose to develop a new family of molecules with novel properties to enhance cell entry and specific degradation of tumor targets. This approach, which is very innovative, will allow the amplification of the therapeutic efficacy in addition to the already existing mechanisms. The two academic partners will use their expertise in the design and production of the new family of molecules (IBMM, CNRS) and the functionalized antibodies (BACFLY, CNRS), while the industrial partner (NanoMedSyn) will carry out the preclinical proof of concept of the technology with the aim of a future development.