Our Technology
We have developed a proprietary iNKT cell expansion platform that allows us to manufacture at least 100 doses of CAR-modified iNKT cells from single donor leukopak in a cost-effective manner. The expanded CAR-modified iNKT cells are > 95% of CD3+iTCR+ and kill cancer cells specifically.
Source of illustrations: BioRender.com
We unexpectedly found that human iNKT cells in normal blood donors displayed on average approximately 44% CD7 negativity. Therefore, we hypothesize that CD7 negative subsets in iNKT cells expressing CD7 CAR can partially avoid fratricide without nuclease-mediated genome editing to delete CD7 and be expanded for adoptive cell therapy of CD7+ malignancies.
By leveraging our proprietary iNKT cell expansion platform, engineered CD7 CAR iNKT (CD7 CAR-iNKT) cells can be expanded to clinical scale, for at least 100 doses without the need of genome editing and inducing unacceptable levels of fratricide. Our CD7 CAR-modified iNKT cell product offers several differentiated advantages over current CD7 CAR-T cells including off-the-shelf, no need of genome editing, dual targeting for CD1d+ T-ALL, and one batch to treat over 100 patients with multi dosing.
Source of illustrations: BioRender.com
We have demonstrated that type III NKT cells have an innate immunity against acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and identified their subsets with specific markers contributing cytotoxicity and cytokine production selectively to AML cancer cells. Furthermore, recognition of AML cancer cells by type III NKT appears CD1d-independent. Native form of type III NKT cells without engineering could have the potential to treat patients with AML.
