CRANBURY, N.J., Sept. 25, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Sonnet Biotherapeutics Inc., a pre-clinical stage company developing a modular immuno-oncology platform for enhancing and enabling cancer treatments, today announced that the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) has accepted an abstract of data on Sonnet's albumin binding domain (ABD) based discovery platform for presentation at AACR's International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (October 26-30).  The company also announced that the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) has accepted a Sonnet abstract for presentation at the SITC Annual Meeting in National Harbor, Maryland (November 8-12).

Smaller (< 50Kd) recombinant therapeutic proteins (e.g., interleukins, receptor ligands) exhibit short circulation half-lives, which limit their therapeutic bioactivity. The Sonnet platform utilizes a proprietary scFv albumin binding domain (ABD) fusion construct to increase the serum half-life and tumor concentrations of several different small immune modulating biotherapeutic proteins.  These ABD constructs have been selected based on their high binding affinity to mouse, human & cynolomogous monkey circulating serum albumin thereby reducing renal clearance, and resulting in increased biologic half-life.  The posters will present data demonstrating two important benefits of the platform:  increased half-life (from minutes to days in mice) of the appended therapeutic protein, and improved tumor target delivery (as numerous studies have shown that albumin accumulates in tumors and inflamed tissues). In-vivo data demonstrating markedly improved anti-tumor activity (in an established tumor model) will also be shared.  Of the three interleukin products to be presented, two are bispecific, (albumin binding + 1 interleukin), and one is trispecific, integrating two different interleukins into one construct.

"Interleukins such as IL2, IL12, IL15, and others are potent immune enhancers that have had limited clinical success due to their short serum half-life and toxicity," said Sonnet's Chief Scientific Officer, Robert Kramer, Ph.D.  "These presentations will demonstrate our progress, which suggests that Sonnet's platform has the potential to enhance the serum half-life and improve the tumor delivery and efficacy of interleukins and perhaps other immune modulators in patients."

Kramer added, "Sonnet is excited to be sharing our preclinical proof of concept mouse model data as we undertake discussions with potential industry partners.  Concurrently, we are working toward proof of concept on additional pipeline assets and look forward to publishing that data in 2018."

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SOURCE Sonnet Biotherapeutics Inc.