Scancell Holdings plc (LON: SCLP) has extended its collaboration with Karolinska Institute's rheumatology unit, Proactive Investors reported on Thursday.

The extension builds on a pre-existing relationship between the company and Sweden's world-leading medical research university and it will focus on broadening the applications for Scancell's Moditope platform.

One of the company's main drug candidates, MODI-1, utilises the Moditope technology.

MODI-1, which will initially be trialled in breast and ovarian cancer as well as sarcoma that is found in fat, muscle, bone and tendons, stimulates the production of killer CD4+ T cells that seek out and kill tumour cells that would otherwise be hidden from the immune system.

Scientists at the Karolinska Institute, led by Professors Lars Klareskog and Vivianne Malmstrom, discovered that citrullinated proteins, which are normally associated with arthritis, play an essential role in the process of controlling tumour growth. The expansion will help them to develop Moditope for use in cancer vaccines and as part of other cancer immunotherapy approaches.