Abstract 4866: Development and characterization of novel CD40 antibody agonists for cancer immunotherapy
CD40 is a key molecule in the regulation of immune responses and its activity can be modulated using antibodies. In particular, agonist CD40 antibodies are highly effective in preclinical tumor models either through direct interaction with CD40 expressing lymphomas, or indirectly through the activation of an anti tumor immune response. To date, limited clinical data have been reported with strong CD40 agonist antibodies; nonetheless it seems likely that targeting this pathway will require a balance between the benefits of potent immune stimulation to drive antitumor responses, and the harm that can result from non specific immune cell activation. We set out to develop novel human antiCD40 antibodies with different levels of agonist activity to identify a lead candidate for systemic application. Here we describe two novel fully human anti CD40 mAbs with good agonist activity resulting in immune cell activation and direct anti lymphoma activity in a xenograft model.