Marco Alessandrini – VJRegenMed

miCAR: combining microRNA gene silencing with CAR expression

admin_vjr_user — Fri, 13 Aug 2021 17:10:41 +0000

Marco Alessandrini, PhD, Antion Biosciences SA, Geneva, Switzerland, provides an overview of Therapeutic MiniGen (TMG) technology, a synthetic microRNA-based multiplex gene silencing technology for the engineering of allogeneic chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cells. He also describes miCAR technology, a biomodal gene construct combining the TMG microRNA cassette with CAR expression, thus allowing the simultaneous silencing of multiple genes and expression of therapeutic proteins. This platform has allowed the generation of allogeneic miCAR T-cells specifically designed to overcome the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment and achieve improved safety and efficacy. This interview took place during the American Society for Cell & Gene Therapy 24th Annual Meeting 2021.

Developing CAR T-cell therapy for HIV

admin_vjr_user — Fri, 13 Aug 2021 17:10:39 +0000

Marco Alessandrini, PhD, Antion Biosciences SA, Geneva, Switzerland, discusses the development of an allogeneic chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy for HIV. Antion’s novel miCAR platform was used to generate a bimodal gene construct that expressed both an HIV-specific CAR with a truncated CD4 receptor and a microRNA-based gene silencing cassette to silence CCR5, the T-cell receptor and inhibitory receptors, in order to enhance CAR T-cell persistence. This work highlights the potential to develop a scalable, cost-effective platform for creating off-the-shelf, universally accessible CAR-T therapy for HIV. This interview took place during the American Society for Cell & Gene Therapy 24th Annual Meeting 2021.

Horizon scanning in anti-CD19 CAR T-cell therapy

admin_vjr_user — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 13:25:14 +0000

Marco Alessandrini, PhD, Antion Biosciences SA, Geneva, Switzerland, provides an overview of the advances seen so far in anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy research but highlights that there are still improvements to be made in terms of safety, efficacy and feasibility of these therapies. Future research should focus on improving treatment-related cytokine release syndrome (CRS) and central nervous system (CNS) conditions, improving treatment efficacy relative to standard of care and improving the accessibility of anti-CD19 CAR T-cell therapy in less sophisticated healthcare environments. This interview took place during the American Society for Cell & Gene Therapy 24th Annual Meeting 2021.