# A Dual Action Antibody Drug Conjugate to Treat Triple Negative Breast Cancer by Enhancing Tumor Immunity

> **NIH NIH R43** · TRIO PHARMACEUTICALS INC. · 2022 · $398,734

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Triple Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC) is the most aggressive form of breast cancer accounting for 15% of all
breast cancers and is widely prevalent in women < 50 years old. Despite new treatments, the survivability of
TNBC patients is poor. Recently, immuno-oncology (IO) therapies demonstrated the potential to improve
treatment outcomes by enabling a patient’s immune system to launch an attack against the tumor. While IO
drugs improved treatment outcome, their response rate has not reached full potential as they are unable to
generate immunogenic tumors. IO drugs solely remove immunosuppression from cancer cells leaving
immunosuppression from immunosuppressor cells intact, thus retaining an immunosuppressive tumor
microenvironment (TME) whereby the immune system is unable to launch an effective attack against the
remaining tumor resulting in reduced efficacy of IO drugs. To circumvent this problem, various strategies are
considered to create immunogenic tumors (e.g., eliminating immunosuppressor cells alone or combining drugs
to eliminate both cancer cells and immunosuppressor cells). However, currently available approaches can lead
to immune toxicities due to non-specific elimination of immune cells outside of the TME. Thus, there is a need to
develop treatment strategies to selectively eliminate immunosuppressor cells within the TME, whilst also
eliminating cancer cells to effectively create an immunogenic tumor to facilitate tumor removal by the immune
system. To address this need, TRIO Pharmaceuticals (TRIO) is developing a proprietary dual-action drug, Tumor
Immunogenicity Enhancing Antibody Conjugate™ (TIEAC™), that generates immunogenic tumors by tumor-
specific elimination of both cancer cells and immunosuppressor cells. For this Phase I program, TRIO is
developing a TIEAC™ for TNBC, referred to as TRIO-525. TRIO-525 aims to improve treatment outcomes in
TNBC patients by generating immunogenic tumors by tumor-specific elimination of TNBC cells and
immunosuppressor cells. This enables immune effector cells to launch an effective attack against the tumor. Our
key innovations include: 1) Eliminating TME-residing immunosuppressor cells by enriching the drug in the tumor
antigen rich tumor; 2) Selective targeting of immunosuppressor cells by a novel design to bind a specific receptor
to allow eliminating immunosuppressor cells without depleting other immune cells thereby lowering immune
toxicity. Preliminary data shown TRIO-525 exhibits single-agent activity in preclinical cancer models with tumor-
selective dual functionality for eliminating TNBC cells and immunosuppressor cells. Herein, the overall Phase I
goal is to establish TRIO-525 as an effective novel therapy for TNBC accomplished by two aims: i) Selectivity of
TRIO-525 in depleting immunosuppressor cells and augmenting T-cell responses in vitro; and ii) Therapeutic
efficacy studies in clinically relevant models in vivo. Successful completion of Phase I will provide data...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10480128
- **Project number:** 1R43CA271923-01
- **Recipient organization:** TRIO PHARMACEUTICALS INC.
- **Principal Investigator:** Reiner Laus
- **Activity code:** R43 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $398,734
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-09-01 → 2024-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10480128

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10480128, A Dual Action Antibody Drug Conjugate to Treat Triple Negative Breast Cancer by Enhancing Tumor Immunity (1R43CA271923-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10480128. Licensed CC0.

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