{"id":32104,"date":"2017-11-20T15:44:12","date_gmt":"2017-11-20T20:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sciencebusiness.technewslit.com\/?p=32104"},"modified":"2017-11-20T15:44:12","modified_gmt":"2017-11-20T20:44:12","slug":"biotech-cancer-center-partner-on-t-cell-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/?p=32104","title":{"rendered":"Biotech, Cancer Center Partner on T-Cell Research"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Human
Scanning electron micrograph of a human T-cell lymphocyte (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

20 November 2017. A developer of cancer diagnostics and treatments is collaborating with Moffitt Cancer Center to advance therapies for ovarian cancer with T-cells from the immune system. The partnership between Moffitt<\/a>, in Tampa, Florida and ITUS Corp.<\/a> in San Jose, California is a cooperative research and development agreement, where the parties share staff and facilities, but do not usually involve transfers of funds.<\/p>\n

ITUS and Moffitt plan to further develop treatments to attack ovarian cancer<\/a> tumors. The technology is based on T-cells, white blood cells in the immune system altered to express chimeric antigen receptors, being adopted as treatments for some blood-related cancers, such as leukemia. For these blood-related cancers, the engineered T-cells seek out and bind to a protein called\u00a0CD19<\/a>\u00a0found on the surface of B cells \u2014 another type of white blood cell \u2014 associated with several blood-related cancers.<\/p>\n

In this project, the chimeric antigen receptor T-cells, or CAR T-cells, are modified to target proteins found on ovarian tumors. While expressed on ovarian tumor cells, these proteins, known as follicle-stimulating hormone receptors<\/a>, are rarely found on healthy cells. Thus treatments seeking out these proteins are likely to cause fewer adverse effects than many current chemotherapies.<\/p>\n

Earlier in November, ITUS licensed this CAR T-cell technology from Wistar Institute<\/a> in Philadelphia. In January 2017, a team from Wistar Institute led by Jose Conejo-Garcia, published a study<\/a> testing modified T-cells that target follicle-stimulating hormone receptors in lab cultures and mice grafted with several types of human ovarian cancer. The researchers found the engineered T-cells attacked only the tumor cells across all of the ovarian cancer types in the mice, and not the surrounding healthy tissue.<\/p>\n

In addition, mice receiving the altered T-cells showed measurable therapeutic effects, including clearance of the tumors in some cases. Moreover, the modified T-cells persisted in the mice, providing immunity against a later introduction of ovarian tumor cells. And the researchers reported longer survival times among the T-cell recipient mice, without noticeable toxicity.<\/p>\n

Under the new agreement, Conejo-Garcia,<\/a> now at Moffitt Cancer Center, will lead a research team to develop CAR T-cells targeting follicle-stimulating hormone receptors to the point of filing an investigational new drug application<\/a>, in effect a request to Food and Drug Administration to begin clinical trials. “Successive to the FDA’s review and permission,” says Amit Kumar, president of ITUS in a company statement, “we hope to take this therapy into human clinical testing for patients suffering from ovarian cancer.”<\/p>\n

ITUS’s main business is liquid biopsy blood tests called Cchek<\/a> that detect solid tumor cancers based on immunological responses to malignancy. With licensing of the CAR T-cell technology from Wistar Institute, ITUS formed a subsidiary known as Certainty Therapeutics to develop CAR T-cell treatments for solid tumors, beginning with ovarian cancer. Wistar Institute is also a minority partner in Certainty Therapeutics.<\/p>\n

More from Science & Enterprise:<\/p>\n