Regen BioPharma, Inc. has filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office a provisional U.S. patent application covering the company’s novel approach for enabling chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell-based therapies to kill solid tumors through prevention of a process called “T cell exhaustion.”
CAR-T cells are effective at treating certain lymphomas and leukemias with an overall cure rate of more than 50%.
However, solid tumors remain resistant to CAR-T therapies for many reasons. One is T cell exhaustion, which means T cells initially recruited to the tumor to kill it end up losing their effectiveness .
The technology covered by the patent application introduces a novel type of T cell resistant to the immune suppressive effects of the tumor, which prevents this exhaustion.
The disclosed technology induces an intracellular program in T cells to endow them with certain features of “younger” cells, thus allowing for enhanced activity against conventional solid tumors such as lung, skin, breast and brain cancers. This includes inhibiting NR2F6, a T cell checkpoint the company has been focusing on.
Treating solid tumors
“CAR-T cells have been in the clinic for six years but they have hardly made a dent in treating solid tumors,” says David Koos, chairman and CEO of Regen BioPharma.
“We hope that through the diligent work of our scientists and collaborators that advancements such as what we announced today will pave the way to bring this incredible cellular immunotherapy to patients suffering from solid tumors such as lung, colon, prostate and others.”