Altamira Therapeutics Announces Significant Enhancement of Immune Checkpoint Inhibition Therapy in Combination with Zbtb46 mRNA Delivered with SemaPhore Nanoparticles in Animal Tumor Models

Hamilton, Bermuda, Aug. 12, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

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• Treatment with ZbtbB46 mRNA nanoparticles based on Altamira’s SemaPhore delivery technology results in significant reduction in tumor growth (p<0.0001)
• Combination of nanoparticles with immune checkpoint inhibitor (anti-PD1) shows even more pronounced improvement, synergistic control of tumor growth with long-term complete remission of tumor in many cases
• Combination therapy may help to render more solid tumor patients responsive to anti-PD1 therapies (immune checkpoint inhibitors)   
• Results published in Nature Immunology, one of the world’s top immunology journals

Altamira Therapeutics Ltd. (“Altamira” or the “Company”) (Nasdaq:CYTO), a company dedicated to developing and commercializing RNA delivery technology for targets beyond the liver, today announced the publication of a peer-reviewed article in Nature Immunology highlighting the important role of the Zbtb46 gene in the control of tumor growth and demonstrating a significant reduction in tumor growth in vivo through treatment with Zbtb46 mRNA delivered with Altamira’s SemaPhore nanoparticle technology.¹ The treatment effect was potentiated when combined with anti-PD1 immune checkpoint inhibition, inducing long-term remission and promoting immunological memory. The research was conducted by a group around Professor Kyunghee Choi of the Pathology & Immunology Department of Washington University School of Medicine (St. Louis, MO).

“Immune checkpoint inhibitors such as Keytruda² or Opdivo³ have shown remarkable efficacy in treating a broad range of solid tumors, but unfortunately a large number of patients are unable to benefit from them due to an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment”, observed Samuel Wickline, M.D., Altamira’s Chief Scientific Adviser and a co-author of the publication. “The study from the Choi Lab shows impressive results from boosting Zbtb46 expression with tumor vessel normalization and enhanced antitumor immunity. Administration of Zbtb46 mRNA nanoparticles appears to provide the right conditions for anti-PD1 treatments to work in a substantially larger cancer population, helping to control tumor growth, induce long-term remission and promote immunological memory. The exciting results with Zbtb46 mRNA nanoparticles are just another great example highlighting the potential of the SemaPhore platform for delivering mRNA therapeutics to non-hepatic tissues.”