03007: Chimeric BiTE-redirected Anti-viral T Cells for Fratricide of Minimal Residual Disease in T-cell Malignancies

One Health: Yes

Abstract

T cells are front-line soldiers deployed throughout the body to defend against infections and cancer. Sometimes, a rogue T cell itself can become cancerous. These resulting blood cancers (lymphoma or leukemia) are unusually resistant to traditional chemotherapy drugs. Immunotherapy has revolutionized the treatment of chemo-resistant B-cell blood cancers, but targeting T cells must be far more precise, to avoid creating AIDS-like conditions in the process. This study proposes to develop an agent that can target only designated “brigades” of the T-cell army that contain the cancerous soldiers. The remaining 90% of normal T cells are unaffected, and the defenses of blood cancer patients against infections are unharmed. Most importantly, this off-the-shelf agent contains no toxin or drug, and does not involve expensive cell-based therapy. Instead, the agent tricks normal T cells into seeing their cancerous cousins as infected, so they are killed to eliminate the sham infection. Further, vaccination against normal infections can boost these cancer-killing effects. This technology will re-direct T cells to police their own rogue elements to help improve outcomes for dogs, and their human counterparts, with deadly T-cell blood cancers.

Publication(s)

None at this time.