Immune cell engagers as important tools to treat cancer and infectious diseases

The team has recently published a review article on the widening potential of immune cell engagers in immunotherapy.

• Department of Infection and Immunity
• Infection and Immunotherapy Reseach Group

Camille Rolin, 3^rd year PhD student, Dr Jacques Zimmer and Dr Carole Seguin-Devaux from the LIH Department of Infection and Immunity (DII) have recently explored the potential of multispecific immune cell engagers in a recent review published in Cellular and Molecular Immunology. In this review, the authors discuss how different immune cell types can be harnessed to treat cancer and infectious diseases, and speculate on the promising future directions of engagers in these two fields.

Immune cell engagers, a subclass of multispecific antibodies, are engineered structures able to bridge between immune cells and cancer, thereby facilitating the immune reaction and destruction of the target cells. These molecules are extremely versatile and offer a wide range of options in terms on the immune cell and pathogen targeted.

Consistently, Camille Rolin, Dr. Carole Seguin-Devaux and Dr. Jacques Zimmer recently published a review to delve into the variety of engagers, and the growing interest of these molecules as observed by the increasing number of recent clinical trials evaluating immune cell engagers in cancer and infectious diseases. Aside from discussing the preclinical and clinical advancements of these constructs, the authors also explain the challenges of knowledge translation between cancer and infectious diseases in the development of such immunotherapeutic complexes.

The infection and immunotherapy group, led by Dr. Carole Seguin-Devaux, focuses on the development of immunotherapeutic molecules that stimulate immune cell functions against various pathogens. As such, the team has previously published a research paper in the Journal of Translational Medicine, describing the development and functional characterization of NaMiX, a molecule composed of  IL15/IL-15Rα multimers coupled to scFvs anti-NK inhibitory receptors, able to stimulate NK cell function against HIV-infected cells.

The team has then expanded horizons and is now currently developing immunotherapeutic complexes to fight against bacterial infections (particularly against Pseudomonas Aeruginosa), but also against cancer. This is specifically the thesis focus of Camille Rolin, 3^rd year PhD student in Dr. Devaux’s group. She is currently working on the development and preclinical evaluation of NK cell engagers (NKCE) in pancreatic cancer models.

The review has been published in Cellular and Molecular Immunology with the full title “Bridging the gap with multispecific immune cell engagers in cancer and infectious diseases” and can be found here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41423-024-01176-4. As a result, Camille Rolin is a speaker at the forthcoming ESMO Asia conference held in Singapore from 06 to 08 December 2024, where she will describe the advancements of immune cell engagers in the preclinical and clinical stages.

Funding

Camille Rolin is supported by a grant from the National Research Fund Luxembourg (FNR),
Doctoral Training Unit “i2TRON”, PRIDE19/14254520, project 20200831.