B-Cell Lymphoma – VJRegenMed

Challenges of CAR T-cell therapy for AML: is CD38 the answer?

admin_vjr_user — Thu, 05 Aug 2021 11:33:45 +0000

Lei Yu, MD, PhD, Shanghai Unicar-Therapy Biomed-Pharmaceutical Technology Co. Ltd, China, explains that chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies have been effective in treating hematologic B-cell malignancies, as they contain several antigens exclusive to the B-cell lineage, such as CD19, that can be targeted without causing significant harm to the patient. A key challenge facing CAR T-cell therapy for AML, however, is the identification of AML-specific target antigens, since myeloid antigens are often co-expressed on healthy bone marrow cells, which when targeted with CAR T-cells can cause fatal myeloablation. CD38 is being investigated as a target antigen for AML CAR T-cell therapy, as it is expressed on AML cells but not healthy bone marrow cells. This interview took place during the International Society for Cell & Gene Therapy (ISCT) 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.

Targetting cancer with allogeneic NK cell therapies

admin_vjr_user — Wed, 24 Mar 2021 19:15:28 +0000

James Trager, PhD, NKarta Therapeutics, South San Francisco, CA, provides an overview of his presentation at the CAR-TCR Summit Europe 2021 on the use of engineered natural killer (NK) cells for allogeneic therapy and describes NKX019, an allogeneic CD19-directed chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-engineered NK cell, which is being studied preclinically in B cell malignancies. CAR-NK cells have been demonstrated to posses a greater inherent cytotoxicity and reduced risk of cytokine release syndrome compared to CAR-T cells. He also introduces a novel strategy currently under preclinical investigation which involves combining NK and T-cell modalities due to their synergistic properties. This interview took place during the CAR-TCR Summit Europe 2021.

CAR-NKs for B cell malignancies

admin_vjr_user — Wed, 24 Mar 2021 19:15:25 +0000

James Trager, PhD, NKarta Therapeutics, South San Francisco, CA, describes NKX019, an investigational allogeneic natural killer (NK) cell-based cancer immunotherapy expanded from healthy donor blood and engineered with a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) that targets tumors expressing the CD19 antigen for the treatment of B-cell malignancies. NKX019 is also engineered with membrane-bound form of the IL15 cytokine which has been demonstrated to enhance the proliferation and persistence of NK cells in preclinical models. This interview took place during the CAR-TCR Summit Europe 2021.