Current and Novel Immuno-Oncology Drug Evaluation Methods via Humanized Mouse Models

Since the first immune checkpoint blocker ipilimumab was approved by the US FDA in 2011, more drug companies have sought to develop their own immunotherapy drugs. Humanized peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) reconstitution in immune deficient mice is becoming a valuable model for evaluating therapeutic antibodies, especially bispecific antibodies (BsAbs), which can mediate immune cells as well as target a tumor antigen.

However, this model has several drawbacks, including a limited dosing window due to graft-versus-host-disease and insufficient natural immune cell infiltration. This has hindered wide application of the model in the development of multiple immune checkpoint inhibitors or immune agonists.

To overcome these issues, LIDE has developed a unique human PBMC/cancer cell co-transfer model which can generate three-dimensional huPBMC-infiltrated tumor tissue for immunotherapy. This model has successfully been used to evaluate the biological function of several signaling proteins and biomarkers in multiple cancers, such as melanoma, breast cancer, and lung cancer.

In this webinar, Dr. Bin Xie discusses the current immuno-oncology drug development landscape, different humanized models available for drug testing, evaluates real-world case studies, and describes the investigation of potential mechanisms by imaging mass cytometry.

Key learning objectives:
- Introduction to immuno-oncology drug development and the importance of using humanized mouse models to address scientific questions
- Evaluation of current IO platforms and new methods from LIDE, including analysis of several case studies
- Understanding the spatiotemporal interaction between tissue-infiltrating immune cells and cancer cells via imaging mass cytometry