SOTIO Active Cellular Immunotherapy (ACI)

SOTIO® active cellular immunotherapy (ACI) is a type of treatment that aims to treat diseases by inducing, enhancing or suppressing the immune response of the human body.

In recent years, researchers have discovered that the human immune system is able to recognize tumor cells and purposefully destroy them. Treatment that uses active cellular immunotherapy can break down the patient’s tolerance to tumor cells and activate his/her immune system to control the tumor growth. To stimulate the immune response effectively, the antigens of tumor cells must be presented inside the lymph nodes by antigen-presenting cells.

The most efficient type of antigen-presenting cells are dendritic cells (DCs). Dendritic cells are the most potent cells that are able to activate naive T-lymphocytes, and thus trigger a specific immune response. The knowledge that dendritic cells play a central role in initiating the human body’s immune response and the capability of producing them in vitro in large quantities have led researchers to consider using them in active cellular immunotherapy.

SOTIO uses active cellular immunotherapy (ACI) platform, entitled DCVAC, for personalized treatment of prostate, ovarian and lung cancer. The SOTIO DCVAC platform uses the patient’s own immune cells activated in vitro to reinforce the immune response to tumor cells. Currently, SOTIO DCVAC is being tested in multiple Phase I to Phase III clinical trials focusing on patients with various stages of prostate, ovarian and lung cancer. SOTIO DCVAC is also developed for the treatment of autoimmune diseases.

The aim of the ongoing trial activities is to evaluate the efficacy and confirm safety of this approach in order to offer new treatments.

Learn more about the SOTIO Active Cellular Immunotherapy focusing on the treatment of cancer diseases:

In line with both expert theoretical assumptions and experimental data, cancer immunotherapy administered on its own has the greatest chance of success if applied to patients at the early stages of the disease, or to patients following a radical surgical intervention when a large amount of the tumor tissue has been removed.

In advanced stages of the disease, cancer immunotherapy needs to be combined with other therapies. For instance, it has been shown that immunotherapy and chemotherapy need not be mutually exclusive. An appropriate combination can have a positive effect. One of the reasons for this is supposed to be the fact that chemotherapy reduces the level of T-regulatory lymphocytes, which support tumor growth due to the active suppression of the anti-tumor immune response.

The possibility of combining immunotherapy treatment with current standard procedures produces synergic effects and has the potential to enhance the overall therapeutic effects. Unlike other chemotherapy combinations, immunotherapy is not expected to increase toxicity of the standard of care chemotherapy.

The SOTIO® active cellular immunotherapy (ACI) investigational treatment developed by SOTIO is focused on the following principles:

  • Use of the proprietary SOTIO® ACI-MAP® technology - Following this proprietary method, the patient’s own dendritic cells are activated by a broad range of tumor antigens that induce a complex immune response.
  • Concept of combination therapy - while immunotherapy on its own mainly focuses on early stage cancer patients, the SOTIO ACI-MAP technology is also being investigated in patients with advanced cancer in combination with multiple treatment modalities to produce synergistic effects and maximize treatment responses.
  • Long-term boosting of the immune response - ACI-MAP® requires patients to be treated at regular intervals (every 2-6 weeks) for up to a year or more. This concept is supported by preclinical evidence and clinical observations. The SOTIO GMP manufacturing process further yields sufficient DCVAC doses from a single leukapheresis for long-term immune boosting, which leads to long-term stimulation of the patient’s immune system
Learn more about SOTIO Cell Therapies focusing on the treatment of cancer diseases.