Benzinga | Sep 17, 2020 04:08PM EDT

Equillium Reports Presented New Data On CD6-ALCAM Pathway In Uncontrolled Asthma At European Respiratory Society Congress

Equillium, Inc. (NASDAQ:EQ), a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing itolizumab to treat severe autoimmune and inflammatory disorders, today announced that data supporting the CD6-ALCAM pathway as a relevant target for therapeutic intervention in patients with uncontrolled asthma was presented in an oral presentation and two posters at the virtual European Respiratory Society (ERS) International Congress 2020 held September 7-9, 2020.

The role of the CD6-ALCAM pathway in modulating T cell activity and trafficking has been suspected in the pathogenesis of multiple autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. The work presented at ERS provides insight into novel roles for CD6 on innate lymphoid cells, as well as the potential interplay between CD6+ T cells and lung smooth muscle cells in modulating bronchomotor tone. These findings suggest the CD6-ALCAM pathway may contribute in multiple ways to asthma pathology. Furthermore, data presented demonstrated that elevated levels of soluble ALCAM were observed in the sputum of patients with severe asthma and high sputum eosinophils. Additional studies are ongoing to characterize this in different phenotypes of asthma patients as a potential biomarker.

"These data provide additional insight into the role of the CD6-ALCAM pathway in inflammatory responses observed in patients with asthma and how it contributes to disease pathogenesis," said Rey Panettieri, M.D., vice chancellor for translational medicine and science director, Rutgers Institute for Translational Medicine and science professor of medicine, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Emeritus Professor of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. "Uncontrolled asthma is a complex, heterogenous and dynamic disease with many patients still not achieving symptom control with current standard of care. There is a critical need for novel therapies that can more broadly modulate the different underlying immune pathways to address this patient population."

Stephen Connelly, Ph.D., chief scientific officer of Equillium, added, "This data further validates CD6 as a therapeutic target that may selectively modulate pathogenic effector cell activity and underscores the compelling opportunity to provide a new potential therapy that selectively targets the CD6-ALCAM pathway. These data support Equillium's ongoing clinical development of itolizumab for the treatment of patients with moderate-to-severe uncontrolled asthma."

Summarized below are the abstracts that were selected for presentation. The ERS abstracts are available online at the conference website. The posters are available under Posters and Presentations on Equillium's website.

Oral Presentation

Title: CD6-ALCAM Pathway is Elevated in Patients with Severe Asthma

Presenting Author Manali Mukherjee, Ph.D.

Session 487

Channel 2

E-Poster Presentations

Title: CD6 is highly expressed in fatal asthma patients and may modulate bronchomotor tone

First Author Cynthia Koziol-White, Ph.D.

Session 47

Title: CD6 Is Expressed On Human Airway and Blood ILCs and Is Upregulated by Epithelial Alarmins IL-33 and TSLP

First Author Taylor Doherty, M.D.

Session 64