First In Vivo Proof-of-Concept Data With CD8+ CAR-Treg Presented at FOCIS 2018
Significant impact on mice survival and skin graft rejection vs. control in relevant GvHD and skin transplant models
24 Jun 2018Industry news
TxCell SA, a developer of cellular immunotherapies based on regulatory T cells (Tregs) for inflammation, autoimmunity and transplantation, announced that Dr Carole Guillonneau, PhD, INSERM UMR1064 - Center of Research in Transplantation and Immunology (CRTI, Nantes, France), presented proof-of-concept preclinical data, generated by TxCell and CRTI, at the annual meeting of the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCIS 2018)
The oral presentation was entitled "Cell therapy with engineered HLA-A2 specific CAR-CD8+ Tregs to avoid transplant rejection". The presentation was the first to deliver data obtained by the TxCell and CRTI collaboration with proprietary CD8+ CAR-Tregs (HLA-A2 CAR-Tregs) in relevant animal models of graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) and skin graft.
In these models, CD8+ CAR-Tregs showed a significant impact on mice survival and delay of skin graft rejection vs. control, respectively. It also was demonstrated that the transduction of a CAR into a CD8+ Treg cell had no impact on the cell phenotype nor on the Treg function, notably its suppressive activity.
In vivo proof of concept is a major step in the TxCell and CRTI collaboration.
“These new proof-of-concept data demonstrate the progress TxCell and CRTI have made since the start of their collaboration only 12 months ago,” said François Meyer, PhD, Chairman of the Board and Head of Research at TxCell. “TxCell now has three CAR-Treg platforms supported by encouraging data. This makes us a clear leader in this emerging field. We expect to start soon the development in humans of the first of these platforms, the CD4+ CAR-Treg platform, with TX200, our lead CAR-Treg program targeting HLA-A2 for the prevention of chronic rejection after organ transplantation. TxCell will continue in parallel to invest in its earlier stage CD8+ Treg and Tr1 platforms. This will give the best chance to TxCell to select the most appropriate approach for patients in areas of significant unmet medical need.”