DC Matters

The DC Matters project – Combination of dendritic cell vaccine with immune checkpoint inhibitors as first-line therapy in patients with solid malignancies, implemented by a multidisciplinary consortium comprising clinicians, researchers with different expertise and a biotechnology company, has the participation of CINTESIS and is funded by Portugal 2020.

Anti-cancer immunotherapy has widened the range of therapeutic options, proving to be safe and effective in increasing patient survival time, or even in inducing complete remission. Vaccines based on dendritic cells (DCs) are attractive immunotherapy due to the unique ability of these cells to activate cytotoxic T lymphocytes with specificity/activity against tumor cells and induce immunological memory, protecting patients from tumor progression and possible relapses.

DCMatters proposes to explore a therapeutic approach based on the combination of DCs vaccines with antibodies inhibiting the PD-1/PD-L1 immune checkpoint, as first-line therapy in patients with solid malignancies. Several levels of innovation will be introduced in this project.

At the industrial level, DCMatters will develop and manufacture third-generation DCs with enhanced capacity to induce an antitumor response by optimizing the standard manufacturing method using chemoinformatics tools and in vitro and in vivo validation.

At the clinical level, DCMatters proposes to prepare and file a request for authorization with the competent authorities for a phase I clinical trial of first-line combination therapy (in patients already candidates for treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors), at a stage when the immune system is most reactive, in order to potentiate the antitumor immune response.

To implement this project, a multidisciplinary consortium was created, comprising clinicians, researchers with different backgrounds, and a biotechnology company, who will work together to coordinate the proof of concept of the combination immunotherapy and the development of a clinical trial.

Portugal 2020

2,116,394.85€

24,638.90€

47212

01/07/2021 to 30/06/2023

Herlander Marques (FMUP-PI)