Immuno-Oncology Efficacy Modeling & Pharmacodynamics Services

Introduction

Immuno-Oncology (I-O) encompasses all therapeutic strategies aimed at activating, enhancing, or restoring the patient's own immune system to recognize, attack, and eliminate cancer cells, primarily including Targeted Molecule-Drug Conjugates (XDCs), Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors (ICIs), Cellular Therapies, Cancer Vaccines, Immunomodulators, and Oncolytic Viruses. I-O therapy activates, enhances, or modifies a patient's own immune system to identify and destroy cancer cells. The key strengths are its specific targeting of tumors and its long-term memory function, which helps prevent relapse. Creative Biolabs accelerates the research and development of cancer immunotherapies by providing a diverse portfolio of animal models for their assessment. The ultimate goal is to enable precision immunotherapy for all types of cancer, making it a central modality for achieving a cure.

Fig.1 Current immunotherapies selectively enhance immune response.^1,4

• Xenograft Models: Patient derived Xenograft (PDX) Models preserve the original tumor's histology and genetic heterogeneity. They are often combined with humanized models to evaluate the efficacy of immunotherapies. When a cell line-derived xenograft (CDX) is implanted into humanized mice, the model contains both the tumor cells and a component of the human immune system. The resulting tumors are then used to study cancer progression, metastasis, and therapeutic responses to anti-cancer agents.
• Syngeneic Models: Because the immune system is competent, this model can effectively evaluate a drug's impact on the complete tumor-immune interaction. It is the preferred model for evaluating systemic immunotherapies like ICIs and cancer vaccines.
• Genetically Engineered Mouse Models: Mice are genetically modified to spontaneously develop tumors that are more reflective of human cancer pathogenesis. Useful for studying the role of specific genes in tumorigenesis and the testing of targeted therapies in an immunocompetent environment.
• Humanized Mouse Models: They can recapitulate human immune responses, making them invaluable for testing human-specific immunotherapies. Ideal for evaluating the efficacy and toxicity of biologics and human-targeted therapies, including monoclonal antibodies and adoptive cell transfer therapies like CAR-T cells.
• Orthotopic Tumor Models: Provide a more anatomically relevant tumor environment and metastatic patterns compared to subcutaneous models. Useful for studying tumor metastasis, invasion, and site-specific immune responses.
• Organoid Models: Utilizing patient derived organoids as personalized 'avatars,' the model accurately assesses a patient's specific response to immunotherapies, thus directly guiding individualized treatment and supporting high-throughput drug screening.

Our Advantages

• Comprehensive Technology and Multi-Modality Support: Our services cover the entire preclinical pipeline, from in vitro assays to in vivo pharmacology. We possess expertise across a broad portfolio of therapeutic modalities, including immune checkpoint inhibitors, cell therapies (CAR-T/TCR-T), cancer vaccines, bispecific antibodies, and oncolytic viruses.
• Advanced and Clinically Relevant In Vivo Models: Our platform offers a comprehensive model matrix, including Syngeneic Models for immune-competent studies, Humanized Models (huPBMC, huCD34+) for human-specific therapy evaluation, and Patient-Relevant Models (huPDX, Tumor Organoids) to accurately mimic the patient-specific Tumor Microenvironment (TME).
• Expert Team and Facilities: Our dedicated team of Ph.D.-level immunologists and oncologists provides expert consultation. We utilize state-of-the-art laboratory facilities that support complex sample processing and the real-time, non-invasive tracking of anti-tumor responses.
• Mechanistic and Predictive Analysis: We possess strong translational science capabilities, utilizing multi-parameter flow cytometry for detailed immune cell profiling and a full suite of assays to generate mechanistically deep and highly predictive data, crucial for understanding the drug's Mechanism of Action (MoA).
• Flexibility, Customization, and Project Management: We possess the capacity to generate bespoke assays and models precisely tailored to the client's unique scientific query and therapeutic agent, ensuring efficient project management and precise results.

Fig.2 Murine models for tumor immunotherapy research.^2,4

Fig.3 Comparison of the efficacy of CD47 blockade in non-humanized and humanized orthotopic mouse model of ES.^3,4

In the humanized mice, the interaction is between a human tumor and human macrophages. This fully human system is more potent, leading to a stronger anti-tumor effect.