Preclinical Assessment of CDR101 - a BCMAxCD3xPD-L1 Trispecific Antibody with Superior Anti-Tumor Efficacy

BCMAxCD3 targeting therapies have demonstrated anti-myeloma activity, and high minimal residual disease negativity rates can be achieved with this approach in heavily pre-treated patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM). Despite these promising clinical results, patients eventually develop resistant disease and relapse. Thus, there is a high need for novel BCMA therapies that can evade the resistance mechanisms and provide more durable responses. Recently, we reported on the promising activity of the Local Activator and T cell Engager (LocATE) technology, a trispecific molecule that targets CD3, BCMA and PD-L1, redirecting T cells to multiple myeloma (MM) cells while selectively counteracting PD-L1/PD-1 induced immunosuppression at the immune synapse (ASH, 2020). Here we present CDR101, an optimized LocATE candidate with potential for clinical development.

First, we analyzed the ability of CDR101 to induce PBMC-mediated cytotoxicity in two MM cell-lines expressing BCMA (U-266 and NCI-H929) and compared it to four BCMAxCD3 bispecific formats currently in clinical development (a half-life extended BCMAxCD3 BiTE, a BCMA-TCB, and two different BCMAxCD3 bispecific monoclonal antibodies) alone or in combination with a separate PD-L1 blocking antibody. CDR101 resulted in at least 10-fold increased T cell-mediated target cell lysis compared to control BCMAxCD3 bispecifics. Strikingly, CDR101 also resulted in increased MM cell killing when compared to free, independent combinations of BCMAxCD3 bispecifics and the PD-L1 inhibitor. These results, together with the observation that MM cells upregulate the expression of PD-L1 in response to treatment with BCMAxCD3 bispecifics, suggest that the superior effect of CDR101 could be attributed to preferential and highly selective inhibition of the PD-1/PD-L1 axis at the cellular interaction within the immune synapse.

Next, bone marrow aspirates from newly diagnosed and RRMM patients were treated with increasing concentrations of CDR101 or a BCMAxCD3 bispecific control. After 24h of incubation, percentage of viable CD138-positive cells and activation status of autologous T cells were analyzed by FACS. Overall, CDR101 potently induced lysis of primary MM cells independently of the E:T ratio (range of E:T ratio between 1.3:1 and 33:1). CDR101 achieved higher target cell killing in all samples compared to the bispecific control, with at least 2-fold difference in 3 out of 4 samples at the highest concentration tested. Concomitantly, CDR101 induced a dose-dependent increase of the T cell activation marker CD25, corroborating the ability of CDR101 to counteract PD-L1/PD-1 induced immunosuppression.

In vivo anti-tumor activity of CDR101 was evaluated using a human MM (NCI-H929) xenograft model in NPG mice. Treatment with four different doses of CDR101 or BCMAxCD3 bispecific control demonstrated that CDR101 induced stronger and more durable responses compared to the bispecific control leading to complete tumor regression in 55 out of 60 mice at the last day of treatment (day 29) with no relapse until the end of the observation time (day 41).

Collectively, CDR101 demonstrated that targeting BCMA with simultaneous blockade of PD-L1 leads to improved myeloma cell killing compared to clinically validated therapies. In contrast to high-affinity PD-L1 immune checkpoint inhibitors, CDR101 selectively inhibits PD-L1 at the immune synapse preventing on-target off-tumor effects. This is expected to translate into a decreased incidence of immune related adverse events (irAEs) and better efficacy arguing for a high clinical potential and swift translation into the clinic.