Immuno-oncology (IO) therapeutics, also known as cancer immunotherapy, is an approach to treating cancer that harnesses the body’s immune system. IO is the application of strategies through which various components of the immune system can be directed to eradicate cancer. It involves both leveraging positive signals, such as cytokines that promote growth/effector functionality in specific cellular subsets or antibodies that engage costimulatory pathways, as well as methods of uncoupling inhibitory signaling pathways that otherwise restrain the anti-tumor immune response.
IO therapeutics have long been an integral part of cancer treatment. Recent advancements have brought them to the forefront of oncology care and established them as a successful treatment for several forms of cancer. Patients with over 12 types of cancer can receive immunotherapies approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
IO therapeutic approaches include adoptive cell transfer, cancer vaccines, checkpoint inhibitors, and immune system modulators.
Checkpoint proteins, such as PD-L1 on tumor cells and PD-1 on T cells, help keep immune responses in check. The binding of PD-L1 to PD-1 keeps T cells from killing tumor cells in the body (left panel). Blocking the binding of PD-L1 to PD-1 with an immune checkpoint inhibitor (anti-PD-L1 or anti-PD-1) allows the T cells to kill tumor cells (right panel). Credit: National Cancer Institute
CAR T-cell therapy is a type of treatment in which a patient's T cells (a type of immune cell) are changed in the laboratory so they will bind to cancer cells and kill them. Credit: National Cancer Institute
A critical challenge in developing effective IO therapeutics is the development of relevant models that can mimic tumor microenvironment (TME) anatomically, genetically, and physiologically. High tumor growth rates and easy genetic modification allow mouse models to be valuable tools for evaluating the effectiveness of immuno-oncology therapeutics.
Noble has deep experience designing and implementing Immuno-Oncology animal models - Syngeneic mouse models to characterize drug candidates for efficacy, pharmacodynamics, pharmacokinetics, toxicity, and bioavailability. Additional assays to measure Real-time tumor growth monitoring by Live animal Imaging, and Flow Cytometry based Immunophenotyping.