Methods and Means for Attracting Immune Effector Cells to Tumor Cells Bispecific Antibodies That Flag Cancer for the Immune System

This patent describes molecules that grab hold of a cancer cell with one arm and an immune cell with the other, bringing the immune system into direct contact with a tumour. It comes from APO-T B.V., a Netherlands biotechnology company developing cancer therapeutics.

The Problem

The immune system can kill cancer cells, but tumours are good at hiding from it. One of the hardest challenges in cancer immunotherapy is getting immune killer cells to recognise and reach the specific cells that should be destroyed, while sparing healthy tissue. Cancer-associated markers are often versions of proteins that healthy cells also carry, so a therapy has to be exquisitely selective. Some of the most tumour-specific targets are not free-floating proteins but complexes displayed on the cell surface, where a fragment of an internal cancer protein is presented by the cell’s own MHC machinery. Directing immune cells against those precise complexes, and only those, requires a molecule that can bridge the gap between a killer cell and its target.

What This Invention Does

The invention provides methods and means for eradicating tumour cells that display, on their surface, an MHC-peptide complex containing a peptide derived from the cancer marker family MAGE. The approach brings at least one immune effector cell into specific contact with the tumour cell through a binding molecule for that MHC-peptide complex. In practice this takes the form of bispecific antibodies: one arm binds specifically to the MHC-MAGE-derived peptide complex on the aberrant cell, and the other arm recognises a target on an immune effector cell. The patent also covers pharmaceutical compositions containing such bispecific antibodies, and T cells equipped with a T cell receptor or a chimeric antigen receptor directed at the same complex. By physically tethering a killer cell to a cancer cell that shows the MAGE marker, the molecule recruits the immune system precisely to the tumour.

Key Features

• Two-armed targeting. A bispecific molecule binds a tumour marker with one arm and an immune effector cell with the other.
• MHC-peptide specificity. The tumour-facing arm recognises an MHC complex presenting a peptide derived from MAGE.
• Immune cell recruitment. Engaging an immune effector cell brings it into direct contact with the cancer cell.
• Pharmaceutical compositions. The claims include formulations of the bispecific antibodies with suitable excipients.
• Engineered T cells. T cells carrying a matching T cell receptor or chimeric antigen receptor are also covered.

Who Is Behind It

The applicant is APO-T B.V., a Dutch biotechnology company focused on targeting MHC-peptide complexes that are displayed on cancer cells, aiming for selective therapies that also counter resistance. The named inventors are Johan Renes and Marta Kijanka. This filing is a divisional application from an earlier related Australian application.

Why It Matters

Immunotherapies that direct killer cells to tumours have transformed the treatment of some cancers, but expanding them to more tumour types depends on finding highly specific targets and safe ways to engage them. Aiming at MHC-presented cancer peptides opens up markers that are otherwise inaccessible, and doing so with bispecific antibodies offers an off-the-shelf format. Protecting these molecules in Australia supports access to advanced immunotherapy approaches in its cancer care.

Related Concepts

• Bispecific monoclonal antibody – the two-armed molecule format at the heart of this invention.
• Cancer immunotherapy – the treatment field the work belongs to.
• Major histocompatibility complex – the cell-surface system that presents the targeted peptide.
• T cell – the immune effector cell the molecule recruits.
• Chimeric antigen receptor – the engineered receptor used in the T cell embodiments.

---

AU 2026202020 was published in the Australian Official Journal of Patents on 16 April 2026 and is open for public inspection. Patent applications represent inventions that are sought to be protected and do not necessarily reflect commercially available products.