OncoSec Medical Inc. (OncoSec), a company developing DNA-based intratumoural cancer immunotherapies, has entered a Sponsored Research Agreement (SRA) with Massachusetts General Hospital, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School.

Under the agreement, researchers will evaluate the immunologic mechanisms underlying the anti-tumour effects of OncoSec's clinical stage platform, ImmunoPulse IL-12, in a Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) tumour mouse model.  HPV-associated tumours include oropharyngeal and certain genitourinary cancers (e.g., cervical cancer).

Sara I. Pai, MD, PhD, a faculty member at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, will serve as the principal investigator for this study. Dr. Pai is an expert in HPV-associated oropharyngeal cancer and has performed extensive research to better understand how cancer cells evade the immune system and how this process of immune evasion can be reversed. Dr. Pai's current research involves the development of novel cancer vaccines and immunomodulatory drugs to help treat HPV-associated head and neck cancers.

"We're excited to embark on this study with the Massachusetts General Hospital and Dr. Pai, who has tremendous expertise in understanding how cancer can escape the immune system," said Robert H. Pierce, MD, Chief Scientific Officer at OncoSec. "HPV-associated cancers contain viral antigens, which should allow tumours to be identified and eliminated by the immune system. Unfortunately, these tumours find means to subvert the immune response. We hypothesize that intratumoural IL-12 electroporation allows the immune system to better recognize and mount an attack against these 'foreign' antigens. Dr. Pai and her team are well-positioned to rigorously address these questions."

"Intratumoural delivery of cytokines, such as IL-12, has the potential to alter the tumour microenvironment while minimizing the attendant systemic toxicity associated with other immunotherapeutic target delivery systems," said Dr. Pai.

OncoSec's immunotherapy platform, ImmunoPulse IL-12, is designed to deliver and enhance the uptake of DNA-based IL-12 directly into tumours. OncoSec is currently conducting phase II clinical trials of ImmunoPulse IL-12 in metastatic melanoma and plans to initiate phase II studies in head and neck cancer and triple negative breast cancer. Preliminary data from melanoma clinical trials show evidence that ImmunoPulse IL-12 can generate a local immune response as well as systemic anti-tumour effects.

IL-12 is an inflammatory cytokine that regulates multiple aspects of the immune system and initiates both innate and adaptive immune responses. IL-12 is a key driver of the cascade of biological events that ultimately lead to T-cell-specific killing of cancer cells. Moreover, cytokines and chemokines induced by this pathway also increase the recruitment of inflammatory T-cells into tumours.

OncoSec Medical Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company developing its investigational ImmunoPulse intratumoural cancer immunotherapy.