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Project

Preparations of an early-phase clinical trial with CAR-NK cells for patients with acute myeloid leukaemia.

Over the last decade, immunotherapy has had an unseen impact on the outcome of cancer patients. However, many hurdles remain. For example, the majority of patients in need of better treatment options does not respond to PD-1 blockade, while CAR-T cells remain ineffective in solid tumours as monotherapy and go hand-in-hand with often severe cytokine release syndrome and neurotoxicity. On top of that, most tumours produce large amounts of cytokines in their microenvironment which fiercely suppresses both present and infiltrating immune cells. To address these obstacles, our lab has developed over the last five years a CAR-NK cell therapy which targets the CD70 protein. CAR-NK cells have the advantage over CAR-T cells of being safer since no toxicities were observed in their first clinical trials and their ability to be produced off-the-shelf. Moreover, we have proven that CD70 is a highly attractive target for several cancer types and is on top more and more recognised as a promising pan-cancer target. For this project, two main objectives have bene formulated: first we want to optimise the production process of the CAR-NK cells in such a way that they are being produced according to GMP regulations. The latter is necessary to allow usage in a clinic trial. Secondly, we want to collect the necessary preclinical data proving the effectiveness of our CD70 CAR-NK cell therapy in acute myeloid leukaemia. This way, we want to formulate a GMP-grade, as automated as possible, CAR-NK production process and have acquired all required preclinical data necessary to start an early-phase clinical trial.
Date:1 Apr 2023 →  Today
Keywords:CANCER THERAPY, CELL THERAPY, IMMUNOTHERAPY, NK/LAK ACTIVITY
Disciplines:Applied immunology, Cancer therapy