DR-18

DR-18 is a synthetic, engineered variant of the human cytokine interleukin-18 (IL-18) developed by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. It is specifically designed to be 'decoy-resistant' by having significantly reduced affinity for the naturally occurring inhibitory decoy receptor, interleukin-18 binding protein (IL-18BP), while maintaining high affinity and potency for the IL-18 receptor. In many cancers, IL-18BP is upregulated, which neutralizes endogenous IL-18 and suppresses the immune response. By bypassing this inhibition, DR-18 can effectively activate the IL-18 pathway, promoting the activation and proliferation of natural killer (NK) cells and T cells to enhance anti-tumor immunity. It is currently being evaluated in a Phase I clinical trial (DR. DREAM, NCT06492707) for the treatment of relapsed or persistent acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) following allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT).

Other names

Decoy-resistant interleukin-18Decoy-resistant IL-18Engineered interleukin-18