QIMR, Tissue Therapies make cell supply deal

Researchers at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR) have struck a formal deal with recently-listed Tissue Therapies (ASX:TIS) to boost the yield and quality of dendritic cells for their cancer vaccine using the company's cellular growth enhancer VitroGro.

Chris Schmidt, the head of QIMR's cancer immunotherapy laboratory, said QIMR would use VitroGro to culture dendritic cells, aiming to improve their function and increase stimulation of T-cells, the immune system's forward guard.

"Our dendritic cell work goes back to 1997 and last year we published results of a Phase I clinical trail in patients with melanoma," said Schmidt. "Three patients out of 17 had a complete clinical response and remain in clinical remission."

Schmidt heard about VitroGro at a seminar given by Zee Upton, Tissue Therapies' consulting chief scientific officer.

"What attracted me was that I was aware of the literature about the way in which dendritic cells grow in the body and it seemed that the sort of technologies Tissue Therapies had developed were relevant to this," he said. "I felt that the kinds of cues that cells get in the body could be mimicked by reproducing some of them in the test tube.

"We use dendritic cells in clinical trails of patients with advanced malignancies melanoma prostate cancer and glioblastoma. They educate the immune system and activate it.

"Normally dendritic cells would activate T cells to kill the tumour. They have a known role in immunity against viruses and bacteria, and we've shown in our clinical trials that they can do the same thing against cancer. The theory is that by taking some of the precursor cells out of the body, growing them in tissue culture and activating them outside of the body we can get them to do a better job.

"We're trying to find new ways to grow dendritic cells -- normally they are grown in a standard culture media with the addition of cytokines. With VitroGro we've made a number of interesting observations. We're looking at [improving the function of dendritic cells] so that they stimulate T-cells better."

VitroGro contains the vitronectin protein -- a major glycoprotein found in the blood, plasma and the extracellular matrix of many tissues -- which delivers multiple growth factors to cells.

Initial laboratory studies on dendritic cell differentiation, function and yield are expected to take up to 12 months. Schmidt said that if these studies showed promise, QIMR would look at staging a Phase I trial.

Tissue Therapies' executive directory Greg Baynton said that outcomes of this collaboration would be jointly owned by QIMR and Tissue Therapies, which would provide 'some degree of funding' for the pre-clinical studies. Vitrogro is already being used by the Royal Children's Hospital for the treatment of paediatric burns and the Australian Red Cross as a spray-on skin formulation for skin graft growth.

"This new area for Vitrogro in cancer immunotherapy is a large and emerging market for Tissue Therapies," said Baynton. "While our focus remains on wound care, it demonstrates that Vitrogro is a platform technology."