Peptides and combination of peptides for use in immunotherapy against esophageal cancer and other cancers

Inventors

MAHR, Andrea • Weinschenk, Toni • SONG, Colette • Schoor, Oliver • FRITSCHE, Jens • Singh, Harpreet

Assignees

Immatics Biotechnologies GmbH

Abstract

The present invention relates to peptides, proteins, nucleic acids and cells for use in immunotherapeutic methods. In particular, the present invention relates to the immunotherapy of cancer. The present invention furthermore relates to tumor-associated T-cell peptide epitopes, alone or in combination with other tumor-associated peptides that can for example serve as active pharmaceutical ingredients of vaccine compositions that stimulate anti-tumor immune responses, or to stimulate T cells ex vivo and transfer into patients. Peptides bound to molecules of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), or peptides as such, can also be targets of antibodies, soluble T-cell receptors, and other binding molecules.

Core Innovation

The document discloses MHC class I epitope peptides and variants comprising the amino acid sequence ALLDGGSEAYWRV (SEQ ID NO: 8). It describes that the peptides can be provided in the form of pharmaceutically acceptable salts, including elongated forms with up to 4 flanking residues in embodiments for MHC class I binding contexts, and includes consisting essentially of embodiments for the peptides and related peptide forms.

The invention addresses an explicitly stated need to identify peptides that are naturally presented and function as T-cell epitopes, including tumor-associated peptides presented on primary esophageal cancer. It describes binding to human MHC class I/II and provides T-cell functional criteria for peptide recognition, including half-max lysis at peptide concentrations in the sub-millimolar to nanomolar range.

The document connects peptide identification to a validation and presentation workflow using TUMAP discovery/validation by LC-MS with an integrated over-presentation pipeline (XPRESIDENT®). It describes evidence that identified tumor-associated peptides are naturally presented on primary esophageal cancer and contrasts LC-MS validation with synthetic reference peptides, while also including peptide synthesis and analysis and peptide modifications and alternative peptide backbones, including non-peptide/retro-inverso backbones, D-amino acids, and chemical terminal groups.

Claims Coverage

The partial claim set includes three independent claims. Across these independent claims, the inventive coverage focuses on the specific peptide sequence ALLDGGSEAYWRV (SEQ ID NO: 8), its salt form, and a pegylated version of that peptide with defined salt embodiments for further claim narrowing.

Claim coverage is centered on the defined peptide sequence ALLDGGSEAYWRV (SEQ ID NO: 8), including embodiments formulated as pharmaceutically acceptable salts and as a generic salt, and further on a pegylated version of that peptide with pharmaceutically acceptable salt embodiments.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications