AEterna Zentaris Expands Therapeutic Approaches in Oncology

AEterna Zentaris has established a new research collaboration with Wurzburg/Germany-based Julius-Maximilians- University on the development of tumor vaccines based on attenuated bacterial carriers.

AEterna Zentaris also acquired patent rights from the university and the inventors covering several aspects of both immunotherapeutic approaches against cancer as well as bacterial tumor targeting. The first expected targets for this research project would be the development of vaccines against prostate cancer and melanoma. This vaccine approach exploits the ability of bacteria to induce potent immune responses and to direct this response against malignancies. The immunogenicity of the vaccine is further enhanced by the capacity of bacteria to colonize tumor tissues.

This property will be used to transport substances, such as proteins, into the tumor tissue. The preclinical proof of principle has already been shown in a transgenic animal model and is backed by several patent applications now transferred to AEterna Zentaris.