Blood pressure vaccine candidate CYT006-AngQb safe and effective: Cytos Bio

CYT006-AngQb is a therapeutic vaccine designed to evoke an antibody response against angiotensin II

Hypertension vaccine CYT006-AngQb by Cytos Biotechnology has been found safe effective in humans besides lowering higher blood pressure in three early phase clinical studies.

Vaccination with CYT006-AngQb has been shown to significantly reduce the mean ambulatory daytime blood pressure by induction of antibodies that bind angiotensin II.

A particularly strong blood pressure reduction has been observed in the early morning hours – a crucial time of day when adverse cardiovascular events are more likely to occur than during other times of the day.

CYT006-AngQb is a therapeutic vaccine designed to instruct the patient’s immune system to produce an antibody response against angiotensin II.

Angiotensin II is a small peptide in the body and part of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS), which is an important regulator of blood pressure. Angiotensin II causes blood vessels to narrow, resulting in increased blood pressure.

CYT006-AngQb is a first-in-class product candidate in this important indication and represents a completely novel approach to hypertension treatment.

Treatment with CYT006-AngQb could allow a smooth control of blood pressure due to a sustained antibody response induced by vaccination, Cytos said in a press release announcing the trial results.

CYT006-AngQb hypertension vaccine, when administered in a conventional treatment regimen with injections at weeks 0, 4, and 12, in a phase 2a proof of concept study, found that it was safe, well tolerated and efficacious in lowering the mean ambulatory blood pressure by -9/-4 mmHg (systolic/diastolic).

CYT006-AngQb hypertension vaccine was administered more frequently and in shorter intervals
than in a second study with injections at weeks 0, 2, 4, 6 and 10. The intention of the altered regimen was to achieve higher antibody titers and a stronger reduction of the blood pressure.

CYT006-AngQb hypertension vaccine titers were higher in the second than in first. The decrease in blood pressure was less than reported for study 01, and the antibodies induced by vaccination had a significantly lower affinity towards angiotensin II, i.e. they bound angiotensin II less tightly, which could explain the lowerblood pressure reduction.

In a third CYT006-AngQb hypertension vaccine study an identical design of study 02 and was initiated shortly after the start of study 02.

The goal of study 03 was to investigate safety, tolerability and efficacy of a higher dose of CYT006-AngQb hypertension vaccine (2.7 mg total for study 03 vs. 1.5 mg total for study 02).

Study 03 used the same dosing schedule as study 02. Following the observation of significantly lower affinities induced by the altered treatment regimen in study 02, study 03 should clarify whether lower antibody affinities induced by the altered regimen are a reproducible finding which could ex