ODC-IL18

ODC-IL18 is a novel engineered cytokine-based immunotherapeutic drug candidate designed to overcome the limitations of wild-type interleukin-18 (IL-18) in cancer therapy. It is a modified form of IL-18 that is resistant to inhibition by the endogenous IL-18 binding protein (IL-18BP), which normally acts as a decoy receptor and limits the therapeutic efficacy of native IL-18. By maintaining high affinity for the IL-18 receptor while exhibiting undetectable binding to IL-18BP, ODC-IL18 can robustly activate both innate and adaptive immune responses, including natural killer (NK) cells, monocytes, dendritic cells, T cells, and B cells. This results in enhanced interferon-gamma (IFNγ) production and tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte activation within the tumor microenvironment. The drug aims to harness these immunostimulatory effects for anti-tumor activity in solid tumors where high levels of IL-18BP have previously limited clinical benefit from wild-type IL-18 therapies[1][6]. ODC-IL18 represents an example of "decoy-resistant" or "binding protein–resistant" recombinant human interleukin 18.