Research demonstrates newly defined CTAK mediation of leukemia cell killing arises from the CAR-T manufacturing process itself
Suppression of HIV in a humanized mouse model, validating Caring Cross’ Anti-HIV DuoCAR-T Cell Therapy
GAITHERSBURG, Md., May 16, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Caring Cross, a 501c(3) non-profit dedicated to accelerating the development of advanced medicines and enabling access to cures for all patients, everywhere, announced that Rimas Orentas, Ph.D., Scientific Director of Caring Cross, and Kim Anthony-Gonda, Ph.D., Director of Cell & Gene Therapy at Caring Cross, will be presenting two posters at the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy Annual Meeting (ASGCT) 2022. The meeting will be a hybrid event with participants online and in-person in Washington, D.C., on May 16-22, 2022.
Details of the posters are as follows:
| Poster 1 | CAR T-Cell Antigen-Non-Specific Killing (CTAK), CAR-T NK-Like Killing, and CD22 CAR-T Mediated Killing Are All Optimized by Bryostatin Treatment of Pre-B Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia Cell Lines |
| Session: | Cancer – Immunotherapy, Cancer Vaccines I |
| Board No.: | M-213 |
| Date: | May 16th, 2022 |
| Time: | 1730-1830 EDT |
| Speaker: | Dr. Rimas Orentas |
| Poster 2 | IND-enabling Studies Towards an Open Phase I/IIa Trial to Evaluate the Safety and Efficacy of Anti-HIV DuoCAR-T Cell Therapy |
| Session: | Gene & Cell Therapy Trials in Progress |
| Board No.: | Tu-299 |
| Date: | May 17th, 2022 |
| Time: | 1730-1830 EDT |
| Speaker: | Dr. Kim Anthony-Gonda |
| Register | https://annualmeeting.asgct.org/register |
The first poster details the results of a study conducted in partnership with the University of Washington Department of Pediatrics and the Ben Towne Center for Childhood Cancer Research, Seattle Children’s Research Institute, which defined a new property of chimeric antigen receptor therapy (CAR-T). When the CAR-T cells are activated by the signals used to produce therapeutic cell populations, they were found to mediate non-CAR-directed cytolysis, which the investigators termed CAR T-cell antigen-non-specific killing (CTAK). Importantly, the mediated killing from the CAR-T manufacturing process is distinguishable from that exhibited by natural killer (NK) cells – white blood cells that target tumors and cells infected by viruses – or lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cells, those stimulated by cytokines alone to kill tumor cells.
“This discovery is a significant milestone in our mission to increase the efficacy of CAR-T therapies,” commented Dr. Orentas. “Increasing our knowledge of how bryostatin effects are disease-type specific, even within hematologic malignancies, will contribute to our development of curative therapies. Moreover, many of the side-effects attributed to CAR-T may be due to CTAK activity. We are excited to share our findings at ASGCT and use this opportunity to collaborate with others and strengthen the efforts of the Caring Cross network to provide place of care infrastructure for effective gene therapies to areas where it is most needed.”
The second poster highlights results from an IND-enabling study examining whether Caring Cross’ Anti-HIV DuoCAR-T cell technology can travel to the spleen of humanized mice with active HIV infection and inhibit replication of the virus. Data from the study concluded that intravenously administered Anti-HIV DuoCAR-T cells travelled from the peripheral blood to the spleen and demonstrated potent and durable suppression of HIV replication after a single injection of Anti-HIV DuoCAR-T cells.
“It is the Caring Cross mission to create accessible, curative therapies. There is currently no such cure for HIV, only long-term drug therapies,” stated Dr. Anthony-Gonda. “Our Anti-HIV DuoCAR-T cell therapeutic candidate is designed to be a curative treatment option that eliminates HIV-infected cells and safely suppresses HIV infection long-term in the body after a single infusion of Anti-HIV DuoCAR-T cells. We are grateful to ASGCT for hosting our presentation, we are determined to investigate our technology further in a Phase 1/2a clinical trial.”
About Caring Cross
Caring Cross is a 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to accelerating the development of advanced medicines and ensuring access to cures for all patients, everywhere. To enable its mission, Caring Cross is mobilizing a growing community of healthcare professionals, scientists, engineers, community advocates, donors, investors, and business leaders to support the development of technologies and candidate medicines and technologies. Currently, Caring Cross is advancing several initiatives that aim to improve the accessibility, affordability and applicability of CAR-T technology and stem cell gene therapy. These opportunities include developing and implementing affordable solutions for the manufacture of CAR-T cells, advancing a decentralized, place-of-care cell manufacturing model, and developing its first therapeutic candidate, an Anti-HIV DuoCAR-T Cell Therapy designed to suppress HIV replication and eliminate HIV-expressing cells in people with HIV. A stem cell gene therapy for Sickle Cell Disease and Beta-Thalassemia is also in development. For more information on Caring Cross visit https://caringcross.org/.
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