“It’s not a cure for this cancer.
The idea is to take a terminal disease and turn it into a manageable chronic disease.”
Morphogenesis’ clinical trial for IFx-VetDirect has shown
hopeful results. “The fact that virtually all the horses responded and there was tumor reduction is amazing,” Dr. Lawman says. “It’s not a cure for this cancer,” she cautions. “The idea is to
take a terminal disease and turn it into a manageable chronic disease.” Morphogenesis’ IFx-Vet product is currently autho- rized by the USDA for companion animals. The field trial for use of the vaccine on horses was carried
out by Hennessy Research in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, for one year beginning in 2014. Kris Hennessy, Ph.D., DVM conducted the testing by directly injecting the vaccine into three mela- noma lesions on each of the 22 horses.
HOw THe Vaccine wOrks The theory behind the vaccine is that it educates the horse’s immune system to kill the cancer cells throughout the body without damaging the normal cells. Dr. Lawman describes the process analogous to covering your face with a Halloween mask. “The immune system recognizes bacteria and viruses and
goes after them. Because cancer develops from normal cells, the immune system has difficulty recognizing cells as danger- ous. So how does the immune system recognize the cancer cell and not attack the normal cells? What if we could put a piece of DNA from a bacteria (a single gene) inside of the cancer cell? We did and found the cancer cell will express the protein on to its surface, like putting on a Halloween mask.” This singular bacterial gene is taken up by the tumor cell, is
expressed on the surface of the tumor cell and shouts, “danger, danger” to the powerful immune system which sees a bacteria invasion and kills it. During this process, the abnormal tumor antigens are also exposed and the immune system attacks them as well. “Melanoma lesions in a horse have billions of tumor cells
Four examples of melanoma lesions provided by Dr. Hennessy.
and you’re asking the immune system to kill those cells one cell at a time. It can do that, but it takes time. These melanoma cells constantly are mutating and our vaccine is designed to handle this through repeat dosing. If we revaccinate, we can educate the response to all the new abnormal antigens,” explains Dr. Lawman, who adds she is looking forward to a swift and positive answer from the USDA on the equine vaccine. First dogs, then cats, and now hopefully horses. Science— and the advances in medical care it can offer—is truly a wonderful thing!
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