The Lymphoma Channel on VJHemOnc is an independent medical education platform, supported with funding from AstraZeneca (Diamond), BMS (Gold), Johnson & Johnson (Gold), Takeda (Silver) and Galapagos (Bronze). Supporters have no influence on the production of content. The levels of sponsorship listed are reflective of the amount of funding given.
Relapse after HSCT 2021 | CAR-transduced NK cell therapy
Catherine Bollard, MBChB, MD, FRACP, FRCPA, Children’s National Health System, Washington, DC, discusses the potential role of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-transduced natural killer (NK) cells. Prof. Bollard reports that a recent study demonstrated the safe use of CD19 CAR-NK cells in B-cell malignancies. In addition, these cells are associated with IL-15, which enhances the survival of these cells. Larger studies are required to test the efficacy of these CAR-NK products in the clinic. Prof. Bollard also comments on the growing interest in CAR-transduced NK cells for solid tumors. This interview took place at the 2021 Relapse After HSCT² Workshop in New York, NY.
Transcript
The publication that came out of MD Anderson a couple of years ago now created a lot of interest – the use of CD19 CAR-transduced NK cells in the off-the-shelf setting. These were cord blood-derived NK cells that were gene engineered with the CD19 CAR.
They definitely demonstrated in this study that there was a strong safety signal, and they also were able to show that gene engineering the NK cells with the CAR that also had membrane-bound IL-15 associated with it did result in a longer detection of these adoptively transferred NK cells than had previously been described in other studies using NK cells...
The publication that came out of MD Anderson a couple of years ago now created a lot of interest – the use of CD19 CAR-transduced NK cells in the off-the-shelf setting. These were cord blood-derived NK cells that were gene engineered with the CD19 CAR.
They definitely demonstrated in this study that there was a strong safety signal, and they also were able to show that gene engineering the NK cells with the CAR that also had membrane-bound IL-15 associated with it did result in a longer detection of these adoptively transferred NK cells than had previously been described in other studies using NK cells.
So, this was very exciting for the field. I think what the study still hasn’t addressed is the efficacy of this platform, and this can really only be answered in larger phase studies. And so, there is a wealth of activity going on, both in academia and in pharma, to get these off-the-shelf CAR NK cells to the clinic and test the efficacy question.
I think also where off-the-shelf CAR NK cells could make a potential impact is in the solid tumor setting. As we know, CAR T-cells, so far, have not made much of an impact in the solid tumor setting, certainly nothing like the impact they have made in the blood cancer setting. So, there’s a lot of activity around looking at the potential for these CAR NK cell products for solid tumors, and so, this is a space I think we all should watch very carefully.
Read more...
Disclosures
Catherine Bollard, MBChB, MD, FRACP, FRCPA, is the Co-founder and scientific advisory board member of Catamaran Bio and Mana Therapeutics, is a board member of Cabaletta Bio, owns stock in Neximmune, Repertoire Immune Medicines and DSMB- SOBI; and participates in advisory boards for Pfizer, BMS and Roche on an ad hoc basis.
