Nov 2021: The first clinical trial of South Korea’s homegrown next-generation chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cell therapy, which is designed to circumvent immune checkpoint signals, has recently gotten under way.
Het Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) heeft woensdag aangekondigd dat er momenteel een fase 1b klinische studie van zijn CAR-T-celtherapie wordt uitgevoerd in het Samsung Medical Center in Seoul. De proef wordt uitgevoerd met 10 Koreaanse patiënten met recidiverend en refractair diffuus grootcellig B-cellymfoom. De marketingrechten voor de pijplijn werden overgedragen van de universiteit aan het bedrijf Curocell, mede opgericht door professor Kim Chan-hyuk. Curocell is verantwoordelijk voor het klinische ontwikkelingsprogramma van de revolutionair immunotherapie.
In addition, a Phase 2 klinische trial involving seventy participants is going to take place the following year to assess how safe and effective the investigational medication is.
The acronym CAR T, which stands for chimere antigeenreceptor T, is frequently referred to as a miracle cure. This is due to the fact that studies conducted in other countries on terminal blood cancer patients demonstrated that the therapy had a therapeutic effect of more than 80 percent. T cells from a patient are taken from the patient’s blood, genetically enhanced to make them more effective, and then reintroduced to the patient so that they can continue to fight and destroy cancer cells inside the patient’s body.
The research team that was led by Professor Kim of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the KAIST confirmed an improved anticancer efficacy of CAR-T cells in mice with leukaemia and lymphoma. This was achieved by simultaneously inhibiting programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) and T-cell immunoglobulin and ITIM domain (TIGIT), both of which are known to disturb the function of T cells. According to Professor Lee Young-ho, a post-doctoral researcher at KAIST and the first author of the animal model study, this dual blockade of PD-1 and TIGIT is a novel strategy to overcome the immunosuppression of existing CAR-T cells. This strategy was discovered by Prof. Lee Young-ho.
Misschien vind je het leuk om te lezen: CAR T-celtherapie in Korea
De bevindingen van de studie werden gepresenteerd in een artikel dat online werd gepubliceerd in het oktobernummer van Molecular Therapy.
