Research into novel BiKE:HER2/CD16a nanobody published in Frontiers in Immunology
Arash Hatefi, PharmD, PhD, Professor, Department of Pharmaceutics at Rutgers’ Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy has published results of his work in engaging the innate immune system to fight cancer.
Dr. Hatefi has created an engineered BiKE:HER2/CD16a nanobody that has high affinity and high specificity toward CD16a with negligible cross-reactivity with CD16b-NA1 and CD32b. Upon activation of CD16+ NK92 cells, the BiKE nanobody induces the release of higher amounts of Perforin, Granzyme B, TNF-α, and IFN-γ, in comparison to trastuzumab leading to higher antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) with the drug candidate. Overall, the data demonstrates that the BiKE nanobody has the potential to elicit a superior therapeutic response in patients with HER2+ cancer than existing anti-HER2 mAbs.
