CD19 car NK cell therapy achieves a 73% response rate in patients with leukemia and lymphoma

According to the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center I/ According to the results of phase IIa trial, the natural killer (NK) cell therapy of chimeric antigen receptor (car) from cord blood targeting CD19 showed clinical response in most patients with relapsed or refractory non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), and no significant toxic response was observed The results were published in the New England Journal of medicine Of the 11 patients who participated in the study, 8 (73%) responded to the treatment, and 7 achieved complete remission, which means they did not show signs of disease after an average follow-up of 13.8 months Five patients with response continued to receive post remission treatment No patient experienced cytokine release syndrome or neurotoxicity CD19 CAR NK cell therapy has a rapid effect, and the response is obvious within one month after infusion, and these cells still exist one year after infusion The study's co-author and professor of stem cell transplantation and cell therapy, Katy Dr rezvani said: "the results of this clinical trial are encouraging, and we will carry out further clinical studies to study car from allogeneic cord blood NK cells are potential therapeutic options for patients in need " Dr Katie led the development of the MD Anderson car NK platform, which is based on the adoptive cell therapy (ACT) platform, moon shots for chronic lymphocytic leukemia and moon for B-cell lymphoma Supported by shots project The Anderson Cancer Center moon shots project aims to turn scientific findings into meaningful clinical progress, so as to save patients' lives Car NK cells are allogeneic, which means they are derived not from the patient itself, but from unrelated healthy donors Therefore, CAR NK cells have the potential to be manufactured and stored in advance for ready to use Instead, the current commercial car T cells need to use the patient's own transgenic T cells, which take weeks to make At MD Anderson Cancer Center, NK cells were isolated from donated cord blood and genetically engineered to express the car needed to identify cancer specific targets CAR NK cells are also "armed" with IL-15, an immune signaling molecule designed to enhance cell proliferation and survival The CD19 car NK cells used in this study were designed to target B cell malignancies In the clinical trial, 11 patients received a single dose of CD19 car from cord blood NK cells, administered in one of three doses Among them, 5 patients had chronic lymphoblastic leukemia (CLL) and 6 patients had non Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) All patients received a minimum of 3 lines and a maximum of 11 lines of prior treatment Top nine accept CD19 Patients treated with car NK cells were partially matched according to the individual's human leukocyte antigen (HLA) type, but the protocol allowed the last two patients to be treated without HLA matching Dr Katie said the side effects experienced by participants were mainly related to regulatory chemotherapy before cell infusion and were resolved within one to two weeks No patients need to enter the intensive care unit to manage the side effects of treatment "Because of the nature of this treatment, we have actually been able to use it in outpatient clinics We look forward to working with Takeda to promote the treatment more broadly based on the results of larger multicenter trials " MD Anderson's car The NK cell therapy platform was licensed by Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd in 2019 As part of the license and research agreements, Takeda has exclusive rights to develop and commercialize up to four car NK programs, including CD19 Car NK cell therapy (tak-007) and car NK cells targeting B cell mature antigen (BCMA).