Oncology – VJRegenMed

Plasmacytoid dendritic cell-based cancer vaccines

Simon Ng — Tue, 03 May 2022 16:17:05 +0000

Eric Halioua, PDC*line Pharma, Liege, Belgium, provides an overview of PDC*line, a novel cell line derived from plasmacytoid dendritic cells (PDCs) in the bones of patients with leukemia. The cell line is more potent than allogeneic or autologous myeloid cells and are not rejected in humans. He additionally highlights the ease of manufacturing cancer vaccines from PDC*line due to the consistency of the cell line. This interview was conducted during Meeting on the Mediterranean 2022.

Developing a therapeutic cancer vaccine for patients with NSCLC

Simon Ng — Tue, 03 May 2022 16:17:04 +0000

Eric Halioua, PDC*line Pharma, Liege, Belgium, comments the development of PDC*lung, a novel therapeutic plasmacytoid dendritic cell (PDC)-derived vaccine for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). He describes the mechanism of action of the vaccine, where irradiated PDCs are loaded with peptides encoding various lung tumor antigens. A Phase I/II trial (NCT03970746) will assess the vaccine in 64 patients in either a high or low dose. This interview was conducted during Meeting on the Mediterranean 2022.

Assessing PDC*mel, dendritic cell-based vaccine in melanoma

Simon Ng — Tue, 03 May 2022 16:17:04 +0000

Eric Halioua, PDC*line Pharma, Liege, Belgium, discusses the development of PDC*mel, a plasmacytoid dendritic cell (PDC)-derived vaccine for patients with melanoma. The investigational therapy consists of PDC*line loaded with four melanoma peptides and have the ability to be stored in liquid nitrogen. He also describes a Phase I trial (NCT01863108), which tested the vaccine in three different doses. This interview was conducted during Meeting on the Mediterranean 2022.

Applications of stem cell gene therapy beyond genetic diseases

admin_vjr_user — Fri, 22 Apr 2022 12:21:18 +0000

Luigi Naldini, MD, PhD, San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy, Milano, Italy, comments on the potential application of stem cell gene therapy in oncology. In recent years, growing evidence supporting the efficacy and tolerability of this technology in genetic diseases has suggested it as a promising strategy to target tumors by engineering stem cells to target the tumor or to deliver a therapeutic agent. This interview took place at the Transplantation & Cellular Therapy (TCT) Meetings of ASTCT and CIBMTR® 2022 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

PiggyBac Transposon-generated CAR T-cells in solid tumors

Simon Ng — Thu, 21 Apr 2022 16:45:47 +0000

Shigeki Yagyu, MD, PhD, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan, discusses the future of PiggyBac transposon-mediated chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies. A clinical trial is imminently underway to assess a CAR T-cell therapy based on PiggyBac transposon technology in HER2+ bone sarcoma and gynecological cancers. Preclinical studies assessing the treatment has yielded promising results in sarcoma and brain tumors in terms of efficacy and long-term functionality. This interview took place at the International Conference on Lymphocyte Engineering (ICLE) 2022.

CAR T-cell therapy for neuroblastoma

Simon Ng — Thu, 21 Apr 2022 16:45:46 +0000

Shigeki Yagyu, MD, PhD, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan, gives an overview of promising chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies for neuroblastoma. Despite current immunotherapies such as dinutuximab and naxitamab being available, prognoses remain poor in patients. PiggyBac transposon-mediated chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies represent an alternative option for patients and clinical trials are underway to assess safety and efficacy. The PiggyBac transposon will hopefully solve issues relating to cell exhaustion and tumor control and the technology may potentially be utilized in natural killer (NK) cells. This interview took place at the International Conference on Lymphocyte Engineering (ICLE) 2022.

Optimizing the upscaling and outscaling of CAR T-cell therapies

Simon Ng — Thu, 14 Apr 2022 15:56:43 +0000

Saskia Rösch, PhD, Miltenyi Biotec, Bergisch Gladbach, Germany, describes novel approaches to enhance chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell manufacturing. Upscaling can incur cost-related barriers, especially for T-cell receptor (TCR) and allogeneic therapies in solid tumor indications, and utilizing non-viral vectors as well as reducing the cultivation time may ameliorate the aforementioned issues. Developers additionally face issues in outscaling due to complications in material and documentation management, and Dr Rösch suggests decentralization as a potential solution. Regulatory authorities must also collaborate to expedite the development of T-cell therapies. This interview took place at the International Conference on Lymphocyte Engineering (ICLE) 2022.

Moving CAR T-cell therapies to earlier lines of therapy in multiple myeloma

Simon Ng — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 11:18:07 +0000

Angela Krackhard, MD, PhD, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany, comments on the impact of ciltacabtagene autoleucel (cilta-cel) in the multiple myeloma treatment landscape. Cilta-cel is chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy with two recognition epitopes that target B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) and had displayed encouraging results for patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma, especially in those who progress from proteosome inhibitors and anti-CD38 antibodies. It additionally is being assessed in earlier settings, especially due to the heterogeneity of the disease. This interview took place at the International Conference on Lymphocyte Engineering (ICLE) 2022.

Enhancing the long-term functionality of CAR-T cells in solid tumors

Simon Ng — Mon, 11 Apr 2022 09:52:51 +0000

The efficacy of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy in solid tumors have been substandard as a result of CAR T-cell differentiation and exhaustion. Shigeki Yagyu, MD, PhD, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan, comments on the need to improve CAR T-cell potency in solid tumors by optimizing long-term functionality. Despite lentiviral vectors predominantly being used in the engineering of CAR T-cell therapies, they may affect T-cell activity during cell expansion. Dr Yagyu discusses strategies to boost CAR T-cell efficacy including lowering PD-1 expression and reducing T-cell exhaustion. This interview took place at the International Conference on Lymphocyte Engineering (ICLE) 2022.

The benefits of PiggyBac transposon-mediated CAR-T cell technology

Simon Ng — Mon, 11 Apr 2022 09:52:49 +0000

Shigeki Yagyu, MD, PhD, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan, describes the advantages of PiggyBac transposon-based chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cells. As utilizing viral vectors in T-cell expansion can compromise the efficacy of the CAR T-cells and cause differentiation and T-cell exhaustion, PiggyBac transposons represent a viable alternative to manufacture CAR T-cells. Resting T-cells as a base can prevent exhaustion and using antigen-presenting cells (APCs) instead of CD3 can successfully induce the expansion of T-cells. This interview took place at the International Conference on Lymphocyte Engineering (ICLE) 2022.