NextCure to Present Trial in Progress Poster for NC525 at the 2022 American Society of ...

BELTSVILLE, Md., Nov. 03, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NextCure, Inc. (Nasdaq: NXTC), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company committed to discovering and developing novel, first-in-class immunomedicines to treat cancer and other immune-related diseases, today announced that clinical trial investigator Nicholas Short, M.D., Assistant Professor in the Department of Leukemia at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, will present a Trials in Progress poster for NC525, a novel first-in-class immunomedicine, at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting in New Orleans. NC525 is a humanized monoclonal antibody that specifically binds to leukocyte-associated immunoglobulin-like receptor 1 (LAIR-1) and is being developed for the treatment of advanced myeloid leukemia (AML).

“At last year’s ASH conference, we shared promising preclinical data on NC525 demonstrating that targeting LAIR-1 on AML leukemic stem cells (LSCs) and blast cells specifically eradicates both the AML LSCs and blast cells, while preserving healthy hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells in pre-clinical models,” said Han Myint, M.D., NextCure’s chief medical officer. “We have recently filed our investigational new drug (IND) application with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and have received the green light to proceed with a Phase 1 clinical study. We look forward to initiating it in Q1 2023 and advancing NC525 as a potential therapeutic option. This is the fourth therapeutic program that NextCure will advance to the clinic.”

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) remains incurable for most patients with current therapies. LAIR-1 is an immune inhibitory receptor that is present on most immune cell subsets. However, high expression of LAIR-1 is seen on leukemic stem cells and blast cells, whereas LAIR-1 expression is relatively lower on normal hematopoietic stem cells is minimal, making it an ideal anti-leukemic target. NC525, a humanized LAIR-1 mAb, targets and destroys AML blasts and LSCs. The Phase 1 study is an open-label, non-randomized, dose escalation trial to determine safety and tolerability of NC525 in adult patients with relapsed or refractory AML.

Details of the poster presentation are as follows:
Title: A Phase 1, Open-Label, Safety, Tolerability, and Efficacy Study of NC525 in Subjects with Advanced Myeloid Neoplasms
Abstract Number: 4088
Session Name: 616. Acute Myeloid Leukemias: Investigational Therapies, Excluding Transplantation and Cellular Immunotherapies III
Session Date: Monday, December 12, 2022
Session Time: 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM