Scancell Holdings Forum

Thank you so much for your rapid and extremely helpful reply.

You mentioned, in passing, an AGM presentation, I have been looking for presentations and have not found any. Is there anywhere I can get it?

Best regards Richard

Richard,
You asked where I got the following from:
a.)"Professor Durrant has discovered special modified versions of over 100 cancer and pathogen epitopes."
and
b.)"It is hoped that for every natural epitope there is a Moditope, enough to allow T Cells to home in on every known cancer and virus."

a.) was announced at the company's AGM on 7th November 2012.
and
b.) is an extrapolation of the science itself. At the moment Scancell uses natural cancer epitopes in its ImmunoBody cancer vaccines and other companies using ImmunoBody under licence to make vaccines to combat infectious diseases, such as Immbio, use natural viral epitopes. It is hoped that Scancell and other companies like Immbio will be able to incorporate the more powerful Moditope epitopes in their vaccines instead. And that of course for every natural epitope in use a more effective Moditope equivalent can be discovered and patented.

You queried further:
"It appears to me that Scancell are not patenting the individual epitopes at the moment. Am I wrong?"

To answer this (aside from referring to the AGM presentation) here are some extracts from Scancell's announcement to market on 15th August 2012:

"Scancell has identified and patented a series of modified epitopes."
"Not only do these unique epitopes stimulate a CD4 killer T cell response, we have also shown in tests that cancer patients can produce an immune response to these epitopes. The Moditope epitopes can be used to develop both DNA and peptide vaccines and could become an important component of many therapeutic vaccines in the future, both under development at Scancell and other companies.”

Source:
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Hi Lady Bio,

Thank you for your very interesting contributions.

You mention two particular points which I have been unable to find elsewhere. I would love to know where you got them from!

a. "Professor Durrant has discovered special modified versions of over 100 cancer and pathogen epitopes".

b. " It is hoped that for every natural epitope there is a Moditope, enough to allow T Cells to home in on every known cancer and virus."

It appears to me that Scancell are not patenting the individual epitopes at the moment. Am I wrong?

Richard

Lady Bio many thanks for your response. let's all hope you're right!

It would be misleading to imply, in a simplistic fashion, that one of these two Scancell platforms is superior to the other. We shall see in the argument, developed below, that in fact either platform could one day be used to complement the other.

DENDRITIC CELL VACCINES REMAIN THE ONLY ONLY GAME IN TOWN, FOR NOW.
ImmunoBody is Scancell's dendritic cell vaccine platform. It is still generally accepted that the best way to safely stimulate the immune system is via dendritic cells. This is the way that Nature herself proceeds. In fact the only therapeutic cancer vaccine to gain approval for commercial use from the FDA is a dendritic cell prostate cancer vaccine known as Provenge made by Dendreon. Its acceptance made Dendreon the industry leader in therapeutic cancer vaccines and dendritic cell vaccines the only game in town.

But there is a serious flaw in Dendreon's business model. This is because Dendreon has to extract each patient's dendritic cells first before treating these cells with cancer antigens (to teach the immune system to home in on the cancer that these antigens are found in). Then they have to re-infuse the treated cells back into the patient they were taken from. So a different batch of Provenge has to be made for each individual patient, making it extremely expensive. More than $90,000 per treatment cycle!

Other companies have tried to follow Dendreon while at the same time seeking ways to reduce the costs of their respective vaccines to their potential end users. But all of them have come up against the same stumbling block - having to extract the patient's own dendritic cells first. Scancell has found a way round that.

SCANCELL GETS INTO THE SOFTWARE BUSINESS
Scancell's answer to these unaffordable and individually made dendritic cell vaccines was to enter the biological software business. By constructing a DNA program, Scancell found that it could introduce this program into dendritic cells while they were still in the patient's body. The ImmunoBody program then instructs the patient's dendritic cells to manufacture epitopes (that piece of a cancer or virus antigen that the immune system actually recognises). Finally the dendritic cells present these cancer epitopes on their surface to passing T Cells, which recognise the epitopes as foreign and go off to destroy any cancer cells that contain them.

Scancell's ImmunoBody dendritic cell vaccines are therefore able to elicit an immune response against cancer without having to extract the patient's dendritic cells first. This means that unlike Scancell's competitors ImmunoBody vaccines can be mass produced to treat any number of patients from a single manufactured batch. A much more sustainable business model than the competition.

ImmunoBody is also more powerful than other dendritic cell vaccines. ImmunoBody's DNA encodes intentionally for cancer epitopes that stimulate Helper as well as Killer T Cells. The Helper T Cells greatly increase the population of Killer T Cells and aid their onslaught at the tumour site. Some of the epitopes that ImmunoBody instructs the dendritic cells to make escape from these cells altogether and get picked up by their neighbours. This process, known as cross presentation, serves to increase the population of Killer T Cells even more. This all leads to an intensely powerful T Cell response: what Scancell describes as 'high avidity.' This is believed to be the reason why Scancell's SCIB1 vaccine has the ability to shrink tumours, something that other dendritic cell vaccines have been unable to do without the addition of a toxic additive.

Finally, another special feature of ImmunoBody which makes it far superior to the competition is its unique 'plug & play' function. This is the ability to swap out the epitopes of one type of cancer and replace them with those of another type of cancer, simply by making small alterations in its DNA software code. This allows a small lab to develop a new vaccine to treat a different type of cancer in just a couple of weeks, ready for manufacturing. Scancell's ImmunoBody vaccines can therefore be reprogrammed to treat any type of cancer. They can even be programmed to treat infectious diseases by swapping in viral epitopes instead.

MODITOPE: VACCINE COMPONENTS THAT CAN DIRECTLY INDUCE CANCER KILLING T CELLS
As we have seen DNA vaccines such as Scancell's ImmunoBody don't use complete cancer antigens only the active bit of an antigen, its epitope. These 'peptides,' as they are classed chemically, are much shorter than the protein molecules which form antigens so are more convenient to code for. Apart from DNA vaccines there is also another type of vaccine that uses epitopes. They consist simply of epitopes mixed with an adjuvant which is meant to provoke the interest of the immune system. These paired down vaccines are appropriately called 'peptide vaccines.'

When Scancell announced its discovery of Moditope we were told that Moditope consisted of a series of modified epitopes that had the power to stimulate the production of Killer T Cells that destroyed tumours without toxicity. Furthermore that these Moditope epitopes could be used to develop both DNA and peptide vaccines; which makes sense as epitopes are vital components of some DNA vaccines and all peptide vaccines. Additionally we were told that Moditope epitopes could become an important component of many therapeutic vaccines in the future, both under development at Scancell or at other companies.

To understand the significance of this discovery we need to consider a vaccine format where epitopes are in use without the complex delivery machinery used in Scancell's ImmunoBody or other DNA vaccines, namely peptide vaccines.

The typical peptide vaccine consists of a number of epitopes derived from cancer or viral antigens. But with epitopes on their own very little would happen so some kind of immune system stimulant such as the crushed cell walls of bacteria is added in the hope that the immune system will be aroused and take up the vaccine's epitopes and process them. If antigen presenting cells can take up these epitopes then Killer T Cells could be stimulated enough to attack the cancer or the virus that their epitopes have been derived from. But this is in practice a very hit and miss affair and peptide vaccines as a result have met with very little success.

MODITOPE TO THE RESCUE
Nevertheless it seems that salvation is at last at hand for the humble peptide vaccine with the discovery of Moditope. Moditope's specially modified epitopes have the unique ability, unaided, to attract, stimulate and proliferate Killer T Cells. Tests have also shown that the T Cell response they initiate is uniquely powerful; even more powerful than Scancell's ImmunoBody vaccine SCIB1.

From the above it will be immediately evident that the use of Moditope epitopes in peptide vaccines should make these attractively simple vaccines work reliably. Not only could Moditope peptide vaccines work every time but should do so with hitherto unknown power and efficacy.

WHERE DOES THIS PUT IMMUNOBODY?
Fortunately Moditope is not only good news for peptide vaccines but also for ImmunoBody as well, in fact for any future vaccine that uses epitopes. ImmunoBody is also in the especially fortunate position of being able to swap out existing epitopes for different ones at a moment's notice via its 'plug & play' feature.

As pointed out earlier Scancell believes that Moditope epitopes could be included in the vaccines it has currently under development, such as the ImmunoBody vaccines SCIB1 for melanoma and SCIB2 for lung cancer. So what would such a vaccine look like?

SCIB1 incorporating Moditope could have swapped in a Moditope version of the epitope for the Tyrosinase-Related Protein 2 (TRP2) melanoma antigen. TRP2 is currently being used by SCIB1 to stimulate Killer T Cells. The two epitopes used by SCIB1 to stimulate a Helper T Cell response can be left just as they are. We would then get a vaccine that generated, as usual, a powerful high avidity Killer T Cell response but added to that would be the extra proliferation of Killer T Cells provided by the substituted Moditope epitope in the place of TRP2. The result would be a vaccine far more powerful than either SCIB1 unmodified or Moditope used on its own as a peptide vaccine. A great deal of its power and efficacy will still arise from its ImmunoBody design but you would definitely want to see 'Moditope Inside' stamped on the syringe.

Navid - Yes I am aware of your question. But because you posted your question on the Scancell Forum as well as here I thought I better put my non technical description of Moditope on the forum first. I shall supply my answer shortly.

Hi Lady Bio. Have been trying to get your view on whether you think Moditope is superior to sclp dendritic product, as it seems to be better at getting the body's immune system activated.

All we know about Moditope is that it consists of specially modified cancer and disease epitopes that can elicit a powerful killer T Cell attack on cancer and various pathogens without having to target dendritic cells first (apparently).

OK, so they are modified epitopes but what are epitopes anyway? Well epitopes are those bits of a cancer's or a virus' structure that can be identified by the immune system. SCIB1 uses melanoma epitopes (tiny pieces of melanoma) to stimulate T Cells. It does this via the immune system's sentinel cells (dendritic cells) that present foreign particles such as epitopes they come across to T Cells so that the T Cells can home in on the source of these foreign objects and destroy them. If these epitopes (which to the immune system stink of the cancer or virus that they are taken from) are given to killer T Cells, the killer T's will find any more of that cancer or virus in the body and eradicate it. Epitopes therefore are tell tale cancer or virus particles which act like a piece of clothing to a blood hound and once presented to a T Cell allow the T Cell to sniff out the cancer or virus and destroy it wherever it exists in the body.

The SCIB1 ImmunoBody DNA vaccine programs dendritic cells to manufacture mimics of melanoma epitopes to present to T Cells to allow killer T Cells to sniff out the melanoma and eradicate it. But these are mimics of Nature's natural epitopes of melanoma whereas Moditope epitopes are not natural.

Professor Durrant has discovered special modified versions of over 100 cancer and pathogen epitopes. They are so unique that they don't need presenting by dendritic cells at all. They have the power to attract killer T Cells directly. Then they actually expand the population of killer T Cells. What is more the killer T Cell attack they bring about is more powerful than any thus far produced, yet it is safe and non-toxic. It is hoped that for every natural epitope there is a Moditope, enough to allow T Cells to home in on every known cancer and virus.

Lady bio following your posts re moditope do you think this is better than the company's dendritic platform. Sorry to post again but last nights posts seem to be gone so thoighht I'd try a new thread. Thanks

SCANCELL REVEALS PLAN TO TARGET RIVAL'S LEAD VACCINE

Its no secret that Scancell has rival manufacturer Dendreon firmly in its sights. Dendreon holds the coveted position as leader of the therapeutic cancer vaccine market but not for long if Scancell has its way.

Dendreon has been a true trail blazer and its founders were the brains behind the only type of therapeutic cancer vaccine to get commercial approval by the FDA, the dendritic cell vaccine. Non-toxic and cleverly marshalling the patient's own immune system to fight off the disease, they thought they had it made when their first vaccine to treat prostate cancer entered the market place. Their science which used the immune system's sentinels, the dendritic cells, to alert the immune system to the presence of cancer was truly ground breaking but the technology they devised to produce their vaccine was simply uneconomic. Patients had to have their blood collected and sent off to Dendreon so their dendritic cells could be extracted, primed with cancer proteins to allow the immune system to identify and hunt down the cancer and returned for re-infusing back into the patient again. So every batch had to be 'tailor made' for just one patient! It cost the proverbial arm and a leg. $93,000 for a course of treatment that never really worked at its best because of the damage the patient's dendritic cells suffered in the process.

But the real nightmare for Dendreon began when Scancell came up with an alternative dendritic cell vaccine that didn't need patients' blood to make it. In fact Scancell's vaccine actually coated a patient's dendritic cells with cancer proteins while they were still in the patient's body; outdoing Dendreon's expensive 'one patient at a time' vaccine with one that could be mass produced to treat millions of patients from a single batch!

Scancell has achieved this by designing a DNA cancer vaccine called ImmunoBody that instructs the patient's own cells to produce special antibodies which mimic cancer proteins and stick to the surfaces of the patient's dendritic cells. The alarm is raised and the immune system seeks out and destroys the cancer these special antibodies are mimicking. Scancell's vaccine is also re-programmable, enabling it to target any kind of cancer by simply altering its DNA program to cause the production of antibodies that mimic the proteins of a different type of cancer.

THE CONFERENCE THAT TIME FORGOT
As far as most commentators knew Scancell was working on just two ImmunoBody vaccines, SCIB1 to treat melanoma, which is currently in Phase 2 clinical trials and SCIB2 to treat lung cancer which is now ready for trialling. So until last weekend, Dendreon could have comforted itself with the notion that Scancell was swimming in its neighbours' pools. But owing to the diligent research and dogged inquiry of a poster on London South East Scancell Share Chat, Inanaco, Scancell has revealed that they are working on a new ImmunoBody vaccine to treat prostate cancer as well! This has to be Dendreon's worst nightmare.

This astonishing news was initially 'leaked,' but went largely unreported, in a 15 minute presentation at the 12th International Conference on Progress in Vaccination Against Cancer (PIVAC) on Wednesday 12th September 2012. The paper entitled, "Development of new prostate cancer vaccine strategies using PAP as target antigen," described a collaborative project between Scancell and researchers at Nottingham Trent University.

The paper doesn't mince its words. It makes it abundantly clear that the intention is to use Scancell's ImmunoBody DNA vaccine technology to make a mass market successor to Dendreon's only commercial product, its prostate cancer vaccine Provenge. SCIB3, as it will no doubt be called, will encode epitopes from the same antigen used in Provenge. But even more alarmingly for any of Scancell's competitors in the prostate cancer field, Scancell seems to be preparing a prophylactic prostate cancer vaccine as well, intended to prevent the disease developing in the first place. And if you don't think that Scancell are serious about this just take a look at what Professor Lindy Durrant said about Scancell's SCIB 1 vaccine as long ago as May 2010:

"In the short term, this could cure some patients with the disease, and in the long term it could be used to prevent people developing it in the first place."

A WEEKEND OF REVELATIONS
Having come across the above research in PIVAC's conference program, Inanaco sent an email to Scancell seeking clarification of their apparent intentions to develop a vaccine to treat prostate cancer. These intentions were then confirmed in an email from the company which was then posted by Inanaco on London South East's Scancell Chat last Sunday afternoon at 16:10. It read:

Hi *****

You certainly are diligent in your research!! This is early stage research on a possible new ImmunoBody for prostate cancer. We also have several others in development but do not normally make any announcements until we have developed the vaccine to the point where it is sufficiently advanced to be considered a candidate already ready for clinical development (such as SCIB2)

Kind regards

Richard

So Dendreon, you have been warned, but there is precious little you can do about it anyway. Scancell is technologically so far in advance of any other company producing dendritic cell vaccines that its competition might be best advised to prepare for the inevitable. What's that I hear, "Scancell's just a tiny British company with a few million dollars in the bank?" Think again, at the end of this year Scancell is going to be offered up for sale to the highest bidder. The directors have already told the press that they have been approached by suitors so its only a matter of time until the big boys get hold of Scancell's breakthrough DNA technology. Then it really will be curtains for Dendreon.

Research link:
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