Arovella Therapeutics (ASX:ALA) has reported a breakthrough in its development of a new cancer immunotherapy, announcing that its proprietary CLDN18.2 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) demonstrated potent activity against pancreatic cancer cells in preclinical testing.
The Melbourne-based biotechnology company revealed that CAR-T cells engineered with its patent-protected CLDN18.2 sequence successfully eliminated CLDN18.2-positive pancreatic adenocarcinoma cells in a proof-of-concept study carried out at the University of North Carolina under Professor Gianpietro Dotti. Pancreatic cancer remains one of the deadliest malignancies, with limited treatment options and very low survival rates.
The findings showed Arovella’s CAR performed on par with CARsgen Therapeutics’ leading CLDN18.2 construct, which is currently under regulatory review in China. Arovella now plans to integrate its CAR into its invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cell platform.
“Seeing the robust activity of our novel and proprietary CLDN18.2-targeting CAR against pancreatic cancer cells has the team excited as we expand our pipeline to target difficult-to-treat solid tumours,” said Arovella’s CEO and managing director, Dr Michael Baker. “It is encouraging that the cytotoxic potential shown in this study was equivalent to a CAR that has an NDA submitted for regulatory approval. This supports the robustness of our CAR and incorporating it into our iNKT platform.”
Unlike conventional CAR-T cells, iNKT cells can reshape the tumour microenvironment and activate additional cancer-killing immune cells. Recent studies suggest CAR-iNKT therapies may outperform CAR-T in treating solid tumours, providing Arovella with a strategic edge as it moves into pancreatic and gastric cancer research.
The company’s next steps include engineering iNKT cells to express the CLDN18.2 CAR, evaluating their activity against tumour models, and progressing into animal studies to generate the safety and efficacy data required for human trials.
Arovella, one of only a handful of companies pursuing CLDN18.2 CAR-iNKT therapies, is positioning itself at the forefront of a rapidly evolving field that could redefine treatment options for some of the most challenging cancers.