BioVaxys Technology Corp. (BioVaxys) and Sona Nanotech Inc. (Sona) have entered a Research Agreement to develop new cancer therapeutics based on BioVaxys’ DPX Immune Educating Platform (DPX) with Sona’s Targeted Hyperthermia Therapy (THT). 

THT is a photothermal cancer therapy that uses highly targeted infrared light to treat solid tumors. The heat for THT is delivered to tumors using infrared light that is absorbed by Sona’s biocompatible Gold Nanorod (GNR) technology, which elicits a strong immune response.

The collaboration between BioVaxys and Sona will evaluate the immune stimulatory properties of DPX (without an antigen cargo), administered together with THT, as a characteristic of DPX is that it helps prime the innate immune system, which in turn can activate and strengthen the adaptive immune response. 

The collaboration will also evaluate the combination use of THT together with a DPX formulation as a carrier for novel neoantigens expressed on the surface of tumor cells following immunotherapy, such as with THT. 

Each company will contribute its respective technologies for the study, with the research costs covered by the Giacomantonio Immuno-Oncology Research Group. Any novel candidate therapeutic developed in this program will be co-owned and co-prosecuted by BioVaxys and Sona, with the parties planning to enter into a commercialization agreement for a vaccine clinical candidate before the initiation of any Phase 1 study.

The research studies based on the BioVaxys and Sona technologies will be conducted at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, under the direction of Sona’s CMO, Carman Giacomantonio, MD MSc FRCSC, Division of General and Gastrointestinal Surgery, Department of Pathology, Dalhousie University, and Barry Kennedy, PhD, of the Giacomantonio Immuno-Oncology Research Group at Dalhousie University (the Principal Investigators).

Carman Giacomantonio, MD, Chief Medical Officer for Sona Nanotech Inc., commented, “Looking beyond our approaching first-in-human Early Feasibility Study clinical trial for our THT cancer therapy, Sona continues to conduct research to build our pipeline of programs to fully exploit the potential of our GNR technology platform.”

Sona’s current focus for advanced biomedical applications using its biocompatible GNR platform technology with its THT therapy aims to shrink cancerous tumors for certain solid cancers and in so doing trigger a systematic immune response to eliminate both treated and distant, untreated metastases. 

Sona’s GNRs are uniquely manufactured without the use of CTAB (cetyltrimethylammonium bromide), eliminating the toxicity risks associated with the use of other GNR technologies in medical applications.

In a preclinical study, Sona’s research team confirmed that its GNR-based THT causes cancer-specific cell death that activates a strong immune response by the body’s immune system. Results were published in Frontiers in Immunology.

BioVaxys’ DPX technology is a patented delivery platform that can incorporate a range of bioactive molecules, such as mRNA/polynucleotides, peptides/proteins, virus-like particles, and small molecules, to produce targeted, long-lasting immune responses enabled by various formulated components. 

The DPX platform, which is non-aqueous and non-systemic, facilitates antigen delivery to regional lymph nodes and has been demonstrated to induce robust and durable T cell and B cell responses in pre-clinical and clinical studies for both cancer and infectious disease.

The DPX platform has been proven in multiple Phase 1 and Phase 2 clinical studies across a range of different antigens in oncology and infectious disease applications.