Autologous CAR-T cell therapy has revolutionized the way some cancers are treated, offering hope to patients with no other options. This innovative treatment involves removing a patient's T cells, genetically modifying them to target cancer cells, and then reinfusing them back into the patient's body. The results of autologous cell therapies have been remarkable, but has come with long turnaround times, limited availability of cell products and high costs.
An alternative method of leveraging the same therapeutic concepts is possible - allogeneic CAR-T therapy. This approach involves using a single pool of T cells from the same donor that can be expanded, modified and then used for multiple patients, eliminating the need for individual cell collections. This greatly increases the affordability of CAR-T therapy and make them readily available to many more patients.
One major concern for allogeneic cell therapies is the risk of immunological reaction, where the therapeutic cells attack the host with life-threatening consequences. However, modern genetic engineering technology can help modify these cells to avoid undesired immune reactions.
An exciting advance for the field of allogeneic cell therapy, the FDA recently approved the initiation of a clinical trial to study an allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy to treat patients with B-cell malignancies sponsored by Sana Biotechnology. At Cellistic, we’re excited to see this milestone for our field and look forward to updates as the trial progresses.
Andy Holt, Chief Commercial Officer at Cellistic,” It’s important for everyone that is invested in lowering costs and improving access to life-saving therapeutics to see this progress by Sana. We’re working with a number of similar companies that view iPSC platforms as one key to unlock better therapies and get them to patients faster. We are excited when significant steps, like an approved IND, happen in our field. Making the switch to scalable, efficient platforms for cell therapy production is the next frontier for our industry and what we’re jumping into at Cellistic.”
Editor’s Note: This blogpost was based on the following sources
https://www.cgtlive.com/view/gerhard-ehninger-md-on-managing-toxicities-switchable-cars-aml