Tonix Pharmaceuticals Announces Results from Preclinical Study of TNX-1700 Presented in a Poster at AACR Virtual Annual Meeting 2020

TNX-1700 (Stabilized Recombinant Trefoil Factor 2) (rTFF2-CTP) Enhances Anti-tumor Activity of PD-1
blockade in Mouse Models of Colorectal Cancer

NEW YORK, June 22, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp. (Nasdaq: TNXP) (Tonix or the Company), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, today announced that preclinical results of TNX-1700 are being presented in a poster at the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) Virtual Annual Meeting II. The meeting is being held online June 22-24, 2020. The poster can be found on the Scientific Presentations page of Tonix’s website.

A poster, titled “Stabilized recombinant trefoil factor 2 (TFF2-CTP) enhances anti-tumor activity of PD-1 blockade in mouse models of colorectal cancer,” includes data from a preclinical study which investigated the role of PD-L1 in colorectal tumorigenesis and evaluated the utility of targeting myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs) in combination with PD-1 blockade in mouse models of colorectal cancer. The data show that anti-PD-1 monotherapy was unable to evoke anti-tumor immunity in this model of colorectal cancer, but TFF2-CTP augmented the efficacy of anti-PD-1 therapy. Anti-PD-1 in combination with TFF2-CTP showed greater anti-tumor activity in PD-L1-overexpressing mice. Tonix is developing TNX-1700 (rTFF2-CTP) for the treatment of gastric, colon and pancreatic cancers under a license from Columbia University. The studies conducted were performed by scientists at Columbia University under the direction of Timothy Wang, M.D., Chief of the Division of Digestive and Liver Diseases at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

“Colorectal cancer is notoriously unresponsive to anti-PD1 treatment, which has revolutionized the treatment of other cancers and is known as immuno-oncology. Much research has been focused on trying to turn anti-PD1 unresponsive tumors into anti-PD1 responsive tumors,” said Seth Lederman, M.D., Chief Executive Officer of Tonix.

“The data from this preclinical trial demonstrate that TNX-1700 treatment converted anti-PD1 non-responsive colorectal tumors into anti-PD1 responsive tumors,” said Dr. Wang. “In addition, it was shown that TNX-1700 inhibits the MDSCs which contribute to the toxic element of the tumor microenvironment. Therefore, whether a tumor is anti-PD1 non-responsive or responsive may relate to the tumor microenvironment rather than the tumor itself.”