AACR 2017 | Poster 4589/4 – Preclinical investigation of the novel SGN-CD70A antibody drug conjugate in T-Cell Lymphomas

At the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting in Washington, DC, USA, on Tuesday 4^th April, a poster session titled “Immunoconjugates and Antibodies” took place.

One of the posters on display (4589 / 4) was titled “Preclinical investigation of SGN-CD70A antibody-drug conjugate in T cell lymphomas” by Chen-Yen Yang from University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, and colleagues.

SGN-CD70A is a novel antibody drug conjugate; an anti-CD70 monoclonal antibody joined to a pyrrolobenzodiazepine (PBD) dimer (synthetic DNA cross-linking molecule). This group aimed to evaluate the anti-tumor activity of SGN-CD70A in T-Cell Lymphomas (TCLs).

Key Highlights:

• CD70 expression was reported in all subtypes of TCL and all Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphoma (CTCL) cell lines
• CD70 was not expressed in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from healthy subjects
• SGN-CD70A had no significant activity in CD70-negative T-ALL lines, however potently inhibited cell growth in CD70-positive CTCL lines
• SGN-CD70A was more efficient at inducing apoptosis and cell death in CTCL cell lines compared with media and h00d-1910 treated controls
• In a dose-dependent manner, SGN-CD70A inhibited cell proliferation and induced higher caspase 3/7 activity in CD70-positive patient-derived TCL primary cells, while h00d-1910 treated in parallel had no significant effects

In conclusion, this poster stated that CD70 is not expressed by healthy donor cells, but is expressed by nodal and cutaneous TCLs. The antibody drug conjugate SGN-CD70A demonstrated anti-tumor activity in CTCL cell lines as well as in patient derived TCL primary cells. These data indicate that SGN-CD70A is a promising therapeutic option for TCLs.