Nashat Y. Gabrail, Anthony Tolcher, Olatunji B. Alese, Michael Cecchini, Patel Manish, Haeseong Park, Jordan Berlin, Erika P. Hamilton, Yingjie Huang, Lingmin Lu, Jianming Wang, Michael Shi, Ming F. Tong; Gabrail Cancer Center, Canton, OH; Next Oncology, San Antonio, TX; Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, Atlanta, GA; Yale Cancer Center, Yale University, New Haven, CT; Sarah Cannon Research Institute, Sarasota, FL; Siteman Cancer Center, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO; Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN; Sarah Cannon Research Institute and Tennessee Oncology, PLLC, Nashville, TN; Mabspace Biosciences Co Ltd, Suzhou, NJ, China; Transcenta Therapeutics, Princeton, NJ; Harvard University, San Diego, CA

Background: In normal conditions, Claudin (CLDN)18.2 is a tight junction protein with expression strictly confined to differentiated epithelial cells in gastric mucosa. CLDN18.2 has been found to be  upregulated, and involved in tumor development and progression in a variety of tumor types such as gastric, pancreatic, and bile duct cancer (BTC). The biological characteristics of CLDN18.2 suggest it is an ideal therapeutic target for cancer drug development. IMAB362 is the first anti-CLDN18.2 mono- clonal antibody (mAb) of high potency to have been tested in humans and it revealed clinical efficacy in gastric cancer in a phase II study. TST001, a humanized IgG1 mAb, binds to a distinct epitope of CLDN18.2 with higher affinity and mediates CLDN18.2 expressing cancer cell death through anti- body-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) in comparison with IMAB362; Furthermore, TST001 is produced using an optimized glycoengineering process to increase affinity to FcR. The enhanced bind ing to CLDN18.2 on tumor cells and FcR on NK cells results in more efficient engagement of the tumor cells with NK cells and antibody mediated cellular cytotoxicity. In preclinical xenograft studies, TST001 displayed potent anti-tumor activities in the tumor models with medium to high level of CLDN18.2 expression and synergy anti-cancer effect with checkpoint inhibitor. A mAb specific for CLDN18.2 was also developed as an IHC based biomarker for patient enrollment in the clinical trials.

Methods: This is an open-label, multi-center, phase I clinical trial to evaluate the safety, maximum tolerated dose (MTD), pharmacokinetics (PK) profile and preliminary anti-cancer effect of TST001 in patients with locally advanced or metastatic solid tumors. (NCT04396821) The study consists of two parts: Part A is a 3+3 dose escalation design with sequential dose cohorts of 1, 3, 6, 10mg/kg in Q2W and Q3W schedules. Based on the emerging safety data, higher doses may be proposed for testing. About 27-54 patients will be enrolled. Dose expansion (Part B) will utilize doses of TST001 based on the emerging data from Part A. In Part B, up to 20 patients with CLDN18.2 overexpression per tumor specific cohort will be enrolled to 3 cohorts: A: TST001 single agent in gastric/gastroesophageal junction (G/GEJ) cancer; B: TST001 + nivolumab in G/GEJ cancer; C: TST001 single agent in pancreatic cancer or BTC. All patients in Part B will be selected by CLDN18.2 expression by central lab testing. The safety, anti-tumor activity, and PK will be further assessed in Part B. Enrolment began in July 2020 in the USA and is ongoing in multiple sites. As of 20 September, 2021, 23 subjects were dosed in Part A and the dose of 10mg/kg is being tested. Another phase I study of TST001 single agent and in combination with chemotherapy in patients with metastatic solid tumor is also ongoing in China (NCT04495296).