Tusk Therapeutics, an immuno-oncology company, today announces that its collaborators, Dr. Sergio Quezada and Professor Karl Peggs of the Cancer Immunology group at University College London (UCL), published work in Immunity, a peer-reviewed medical journal, on targeting CD25 with an optimised antibody for the treatment of cancer.

The paper entitled, Fc-Optimized Anti-CD25 Depletes Tumor-Infiltrating Regulatory T Cells and Synergizes with PD-1 Blockade to Eradicate Established Tumor, emphasises the relevance of CD25 as a target and discusses the promise of using an optimised antibody, targeting CD25, for the treatment of cancer in future combination approaches in immuno-oncology.

Tusk Therapeutics, Cancer Research Technology (Cancer Research UK’s commercial arm) and UCL announced in February 2017 that they have an exclusive licensing and collaboration deal aimed at progressing Dr. Quezada’s findings into the clinic.

Luc Dochez, CEO of Tusk Therapeutics, said: “We are excited to be working with Cancer Research UK and Dr. Quezada and Prof. Karl Peggs. The recently published pre-clinical data shows great potential for therapeutic approaches targeting CD25 and Tusk is committed to translating these findings into the clinic.”

Dr. Quezada commented: “The recently published results demonstrate the relevance of CD25 as a therapeutic target and I believe that it shows a clear rationale for progressing it into a therapeutic setting.”

The paper can be accessed here.