{"id":35795,"date":"2019-01-29T12:58:22","date_gmt":"2019-01-29T17:58:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sciencebusiness.technewslit.com\/?p=35795"},"modified":"2019-01-29T16:29:42","modified_gmt":"2019-01-29T21:29:42","slug":"foundation-backs-engineered-t-cells-to-treat-lymphoma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/technewslit.com\/sciencebusiness\/?p=35795","title":{"rendered":"Foundation Backs Engineered T-Cells to Treat Lymphoma"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"T-cells<\/a>
T-cells (NASA.gov)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

29 Jan. 2019. A new initiative is researching modified immune system cells to treat T-cell lymphoma, a type of blood-related cancer, with a simpler, lower-cost process. The 3-year, $8 million project<\/a> was announced yesterday at the Stand Up to Cancer Scientific Summit in Santa Monica, California, organized by American Association for Cancer Research, or AACR.<\/p>\n

The project plans to research the engineering of T-cells in the immune system as a therapy for T-cell lymphoma. Like other lymphomas, T-cell lymphoma<\/a> affects lymphocytes, a type of white blood cell that mutates and proliferates rapidly. T-cell lymphoma affects T-cells, white blood cells in the immune system that attack invading pathogens, and according to the Lymphoma Research Foundation accounts for about 7 percent of all non-Hodgkin lymphomas<\/a> also affecting the lymph nodes and lymphatic system in the body. T-cell lymphoma is considered particularly difficult to treat since T-cells are essential elements of the body’s immune system.<\/p>\n

A promising type of cancer immunotherapy — cancer treatments that harness the immune system — is the genetic modification of T-cells, providing the cells with cancer-fighting properties. This process adds chimeric antigen receptors<\/a>, proteins attracting antibodies that bind to and destroy cancer cells, in this case other T-cells expressing indicators of lymphoma. In most cases, chimeric antigen receptor or CAR T-cells, are derived from a patient’s own T-cells.<\/p>\n

In this new project<\/a>, the researchers plan to study production of banked, off-the-shelf CAR T-cells to make the treatments more widely available, less labor intensive, and lower in cost to patients. In addition, the T-cells would be engineered to work separately from other immune-system cells. The researchers also plan to assess a companion drug that reduces the size of cancerous lymphoma cells, as well as identify biomarkers, or molecular indicators in the body to help track effects of the treatments.<\/p>\n

The project is assembling what Stand Up to Cancer calls a dream team of researchers for this type of cancer and therapy. Leading the team is Helen Heslop<\/a>, director of cell and gene therapy at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, and Gianpietro Dotti<\/a>, professor of microbiology and immunology at University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Both Heslop and Dotti study engineered cells as cancer therapies, including CAR T-cells, as treatments for lymphomas. Joining the team are research colleagues from Baylor and UNC-Chapel Hill, as well as MD Anderson Cancer Center and Wake Forest Baptist Health cancer center.<\/p>\n

The researchers plan to assess results from clinical trials on a number of CAR T-cell therapies to identify an optimal solution. In an AACR statement<\/a>, Heslop explains that the team expects to evaluate “several different targets and several different sorts of immune effector cells. It\u2019s a modular sort of system where we can hopefully combine the best from each different approach to produce a therapy that will improve outcomes in this patient population.”<\/p>\n

Stand Up to Cancer, in Los Angeles, is an initiative of\u00a0Entertainment Industry Foundation<\/a>. The charity foundation was formed in 2008 by film and media executives who use the industry\u2019s resources to encourage a more collaborative model for cancer research.<\/p>\n

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