Compugen Ltd. (Nasdaq: CGEN; TASE: CGEN) today announced that CGEN-15022, a membrane protein discovered by the company, has the potential for treating multiple cancers. Tests indicate that CGEN-15022 is expressed in numerous types of epithelial cancers with significant unmet clinical needs, such as liver, colorectal, lung and ovarian cancers, suggesting that it is a compelling drug target for treatment of these cancers through monoclonal antibody (mAb) therapy.
CGEN-15022 is the second of nine Compugen proteins that has been validated as potential cancer therapies. The first protein, CGEN-15001T, was expressed in solid cancers and hematological malignancies, including prostate cancer, melanoma, Hodgkin's lymphoma, and Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, such as T and B cell lymphomas.
CGEN-15022 is a negative costimulatory protein, which plays critical roles as immune checkpoints, turning down or silencing the active immune system to prevent autoimmunity and to protect tissues from damage during inflammation. Tumor cells "highjack" this process and express these immune checkpoints in order to protect the tumor from destruction by the immune system. Therefore utilizing an antibody to block this function is predicted to remove the immune silencing effect and enable the immune system to attack and destroy the tumor, thus serving as a very promising approach for cancer immunotherapy.
Compugen president and CEO Dr. Anat Cohen-Dayag, "These two novel molecules are now demonstrating significant potential as monoclonal antibody targets for immunotherapy, one of the most promising new approaches for the treatment of various cancers and an approach that has lately been the subject of great enthusiasm." She added that five soluble proteins based on these molecules are undergoing further development in the company's pipeline program, after positive results in animal trials for various autoimmune diseases.
Compugen's share price fell 1.4% by mid-afternoon on the TASE today to NIS 14.40, after falling 1.9% on Nasdaq yesterday to $3.67, giving a market cap of $132 million.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 27, 2012
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