Primmune is developing a novel orally administered small molecule TLR7 agonist (PRTX007) to treat cancer and HPV pre-cancerous lesions. PRTX007 stimulates innate immunity by specifically binding to TLR7 receptors on plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs), leading to pDC activation. Activation of pDCs results in production of Type I and III interferons and direct or indirect activation of natural killer cells, T cells, macrophages and other immune cells to drive robust innate and adaptive immune responses.
To date, the company has dosed 102 healthy human subjects in a SAD/MAD trial. PRTX007 is well tolerated and can drive a well-controlled exposure dependent systemic innate immune response without stimulating inflammatory cytokines like IL-1B, IL-6 or TNFa. These results in the clinic align with in vitro and extensive in vivo primate data and will lead to efficacy studies in patients with cancer and HPV pre-cancerous lesions.
Primmune is a San Diego-based company founded in 2017.