Affimed N.V. presented a poster at the annual meeting of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC), indicating the Company's ICE®? improves cytotoxicity of NK and CAR-NK cells and that NK cells redirected by ICE®? exhibit at least the same efficacy against tumor cells as CAR-NK cells alone or redirected by the ICE®?.

The results emerging from a collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology (IZI) in Leipzig, Germany. To compare approaches, the preclinical efficacy of NK cells combined with a tetravalent bispecific CD16A/CD19-targeting ICE® against CD19-positive tumor cells was compared to the efficacy of anti-CD19 CAR-NK cells alone or in combination with the ICE®. Cytotoxic activation was assessed by calcein-release assays, degranulation, cytokine secretion, and specific CD19-positive target cell killing.

The combination of the ICE® molecule with NK cells or CAR-NK cells enhanced antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) against tumor cells and mediated elevated levels of degranulation when compared to NK cells or CAR-NK cells alone. In conclusion, the combination of NK cells with ICE® represents a straight-forward way to potently target and activate NK cells.