A new CAR-T therapy which targets CD7 has been successfully tested with people with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (T-ALL), it has been announced.
17 patients in Singapore and Italy took part in a trial of the treatment. The CAR-T cells were directed against the CD7 antigen found on T-ALL cells, but crucially were engineered to be ‘fratricide-resistant’ to avoid killing other CAR-T cells.
The treatment was developed in Singapore, and tested between 2019 and 2023 when it was offered to patients with disease that had relapsed or could not be eliminated with chemotherapy. The results have been published in Nature Medicine.
Patients were aged between two and 72 years old. 16 of them achieved complete remission within one month, the researchers report; leukaemic cells were undetectable, even using ultra-sensitive flow cytometry testing.
The first patient has now been in remission for five years and has not needed chemotherapy nor a bone marrow transplant, they report. 11 patients were free of relapse at the time of publication, including all nine patients who received an allogeneic stem cell transplant.
Researcher Dr Bernice Oh, of the Khoo Teck Puat – National University Children’s Medical Institute, Singapore, said: “This CAR-T therapy is a new and promising tool to treat T-ALL patients who have failed conventional treatment. These patients had exhausted all potentially curative options, and we are heartened that we could give them another clear chance at cure without severe side-effects. We are committed to seek better cures for patients with complex and treatment-resistant cancers.”
Fellow researcher Professor Allen Yeoh added: “We are only at the beginning of this exciting journey. There is a lot of scientific and medical enquiry to understand how to better use CD7 CAR T-cells. Each patient, in this series, taught us a lot. Ultimately, for every member of our team, seeing each patient smile and given another chance, after achieving remission, is priceless.”
Source:
Oh BLZ, Shimasaki N, Coustan-Smith E, Chan E, Poon L, Lee SHR, Yeap F, Tan LK, Chai LYA, Le Bert N, Tan N, Bertoletti A, Chen SP, Del Bufalo F, Becilli M, Locatelli F, Yeoh AEJ, Campana D. (2024) “Fratricide-resistant CD7-CAR T cells in T-ALL.” Nature Medicine, 3 September 2024, doi: 10.1038/s41591-024-03228-8.
Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-024-03228-8
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