CAR-T therapy has demonstrated significant potential in cancer treatment, while manufacturing complexity, patient-specific production, treatment availability, and expansion into additional malignancies remain important areas of development.
γδ T cells combine characteristics of innate and adaptive immunity and recognize targets in an MHC-independent manner, making them attractive candidates for healthy-donor allogeneic cell-therapy platforms. CARTx is developing this cell type as the basis for standardized off-the-shelf CAR therapies.
The platform uses healthy-donor γδ T cells that are expanded and genetically engineered through a combination of CRISPR gene editing and AAV-mediated CAR delivery.
The CAR can be inserted at a selected genomic location while simultaneously disrupting an endogenous gene where therapeutically useful. CARTx gives two principal examples:
CD38KO/CD38-CAR γδ T cells — the CD38 locus is disrupted while a CD38-targeting CAR is inserted, creating a fratricide-resistant CAR γδ T-cell product for T-cell malignancies and other CD38-positive cancers.
TGFBR2KO/GD2-CAR γδ T cells — designed to combine GD2 tumor targeting with disruption of TGFBR2 signaling, addressing an immunosuppressive mechanism relevant to solid tumors such as high-grade gliomas.
The underlying platform also allows CAR insertion into a safe-harbor locus when simultaneous knockout of a target gene is unnecessary.
CARTx states that its manufacturing approach can expand cells from one healthy donor to approximately 1 billion cells, with the potential to generate doses for multiple patients.
updated 7 Technology test seeking
