New Approach in CAR-T Cell Therapy

Regen Bio Pharma, Inc. Begins Experiments Validating Its Proprietary CAR-T Cell Therapy Regen Bio Pharma, Inc. announced that it has initiated a series of staged experiments to advance its CAR-T cell differentiation approach through preclinical validation. CAR-T cells are T cells (lymphoid cells that kill tumors in the body) isolated from a cancer patient. They are modified by expressing a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) that is specific to the patient's tumor. While CAR-T cells are effective in treating certain lymphomas and leukemias, solid tumors such as liver, breast and colon remain resistant to CAR-T therapies for various reasons. One reason is "T cell exhaustion," a term meaning that T cells initially taken to the tumor to kill it lose their effectiveness. The company believes that NR2F6, a checkpoint that inhibits T cell activity, plays an important role in the T cell exhaustion phenomenon. Inhibiting NR2F6 is expected to prevent these T cells from becoming dysfunctional. To validate this approach, the company entered into an agreement with contract research organization ProMab Biotechnologies, Inc. of Richmond, California to initiate a series of experiments using the company's proprietary shRNA NR2F6-blocking technology. David Koos, Board Chair and Chief Executive Officer of the company, said, "We are extremely excited to use our cutting-edge genetic approach to create long-lived CAR-T cells" and added "By partnering with a qualified organization like ProMab Biotechnologies, Inc., we hope to rapidly advance this program to the clinic."   Source