HCW Biologics Inc. (NASDAQ: HCWB) saw its shares jump Thursday on news of a new scientific paper.
The biopharmaceutical company, focused on discovering and developing novel immunotherapies to lengthen health span by disrupting the link between chronic, low-grade inflammation and age-related diseases, says the paper, authored by the Company’s scientific research team, in the peer-reviewed journal, Molecular Therapy.
The paper is entitled, “Immunotherapeutic HCW9218 augments anti-tumor activity of chemotherapy via NK cell mediated reduction of therapy-induced senescent cells.” It highlights preclinical data from in vivo animal studies demonstrating the ability of the Company’s lead investigational candidate, HCW9218, to both enhance the anti-tumor efficacy of chemotherapy drugs and diminish their harmful side effects by reducing therapy-induced senescence (TIS).
Cellular senescence is an essential mechanism for tumor suppression. However, an increasing body of evidence has shown that chemotherapy and radiation, standard-of-care anti-cancer regimens, cause the accumulation of senescent cells both in tumor and normal tissue.
Paradoxically, cellular senescence protects non-dividing cancer cells by limiting the effect of chemotherapeutic drugs and radiation and contributes to chemoresistance, radiation resistance, disease relapse, and systemic side effects.
The Company’s data presented in this publication shows that HCW9218 activated immune response can significantly reduce cellular senescence induced by current chemotherapy to improve the anti-tumor efficacy and alleviate the unwanted side effects.
HCWB shares opened Thursday 44 cents higher, or 21.3%, to $2.51.
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