AP-401™ is a novel Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell (iPSC) Bi-Specific CAR NK cell targeting CD155 and CD73 which has shown promising efficacy to solid tumors in animal studies.
CD155, one of the main ligands of TIGIT, is found to be up-regulated in a variety of human malignancies and plays a carcinogenic role by affecting biological functions. The normal cell function of CD155 is to serve as an adhesion molecule and a recognition molecule for natural killer (NK) cells.
CD73 can act as an immune inhibitory control molecule and accumulating studies have shown it to be a key regulatory molecule involved in cancer cell proliferation, migration and invasion in vitro, as well as tumor angiogenesis and tumor immune escape in vivo.