NL-201 explained

NL-201 was an immunotherapy drug candidate that underwent a Phase 1 human clinical trial in cancer patients.^[1] It is a de novo protein that was first computationally designed at the Institute of Protein Design (IPD), University of Washington.^[2] In November 2022, Neoleukin Therapeutics announced it would discontinue the development of NL-201.^[3]

History

The predecessor of NL-201, neoleukin-2/15, was first described and published on Nature magazine in January 2019. The citizen science distributed computing project Rosetta@home, based at the University of Washington, contributed with "forward folding" experiments that helped validate protein designs of neoleukin-2/15, from which NL-201 was further developed by Neoleukin Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company that originated at the IPD.^{[4] [5]}

The Phase 1 human clinical trial began on May 5, 2021.^[6]

In January 2022, Neoleukin Therapeutics announced a collaboration with Merck for a combination clinical trial of Merck's Pembrolizumab and Neoleukin's NL-201.^[7]

In November 2022, Neoleukin Therapeutics announced it would discontinue the development of NL-201.

Notes and References

1. Neoleukin Therapeutics, Inc.. 2021-05-25. A First-in-Human Phase 1 Study of NL-201 in Patients With Relapsed or Refractory Cancer.
2. Silva. Daniel-Adriano. Yu. Shawn. Ulge. Umut Y.. Spangler. Jamie B.. Jude. Kevin M.. Labão-Almeida. Carlos. Ali. Lestat R.. Quijano-Rubio. Alfredo. Ruterbusch. Mikel. Leung. Isabel. Biary. Tamara. 2019-01-09. De novo design of potent and selective mimics of IL-2 and IL-15. Nature. en. 565. 7738. 186–191. 10.1038/s41586-018-0830-7. 30626941 . 1476-4687. 6521699. 2019Natur.565..186S .
3. Web site: 2022-11-14 . Neoleukin Therapeutics Announces Third Quarter 2022 Financial Results and Corporate Update .
4. Web site: Another publication in Nature describing the first de novo designed proteins with anti-cancer activity. 2021-06-22. boinc.bakerlab.org.
5. Web site: Therapeutics. Neoleukin. June 2020. NL-201: A de novo CD25-independent combined IL-2 and IL-15 receptor agonistdesigned to selectively stimulate anti-tumor CD8+ effector T and NK cells. 2021-06-22. Neoleukin Therapeutics.
6. Web site: Neoleukin Therapeutics Announces Initiation of Phase 1 NL-201 Trial Neoleukin Therapeutics, Inc.. 2021-06-22. investor.neoleukin.com. en.
7. Web site: Neoleukin Therapeutics Announces Clinical Collaboration with Merck to Evaluate NL-201 in Combination with KEYTRUDA® (pembrolizumab) Neoleukin Therapeutics, Inc.. 2022-01-10. investor.neoleukin.com. en.