MURA-8518

MURA-8518 is a novel, engineered interleukin-18 (IL-18) cytokine designed for cancer immunotherapy. It is developed to overcome two major limitations of native IL-18 as a therapeutic agent: neutralization by the high-affinity decoy protein IL-18 binding protein (IL-18BP), and rapid clearance due to its short half-life. MURA-8518 incorporates mutations that prevent binding to IL-18BP while preserving the native structure and function of IL-18, and it is fused to a protein scaffold for half-life extension. This design enables more durable immune stimulation in preclinical models, with the goal of enhancing antitumor immune responses. The drug is being developed by Mural Oncology, which was spun out from Alkermes[1][2][3][4][5][6][7].