Cellectis developed engineered GMCSF Knock-Out CAR T-cells through TALEN-mediated gene inactivation, which found to prevent secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines by monocytes, without compromising CAR T-cell anti-tumor activity, thebiopharmaceutical company said Tuesday in a press release.
Cellectis announced the publication of a study in The Journal of Biological Chemistry.
Mohit Sachdeva, Innovation Project Leader at Cellectis commented in the announcement published through PR: “CAR T-cells have achieved high rates of complete remission in hematological malignancies, however, this ‘living drug’ can show life-threatening inflammatory side effects including CRS and neurotoxicity that need to be addressed. Our engineering strategy circumvents such toxic side effects and propose safer, equally potent UCART-cells, to improve patients’ quality of life during treatment.”
In the press release, Julien Valton, Innovation Team Leader at Cellectis, was referred to as saying: “Today, tocilizumab or glucocorticoid treatments are considered the standard of care for CRS management. However, these treatments increase patient medication burden, add substantial costs and lengthen treatment time in intense care settings. To overcome these clinical challenges, we investigated the biogenesis of CRS and based on our findings, developed a CAR T-cell product candidate that could potentially prevent rather than treat CRS symptoms. We hope this approach can bypass CRS symptomatic treatments and improve the overall safety of CAR T-cell therapies for cancer patients.”