Technologies

The Need

Recent advances in Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy have generated hope in treatment of diseases such as cancer and HIV/AIDS. Cytotoxic lymphodepletion preconditioning is a step included in most CAR T-cell therapies, where T-cells and “cytokine sink” cells are depleted to increase the effectiveness of CAR T-cells. However, current therapies have yielded inconsistent results among patients, including death in some preclinical trials. Currently, there is a need for a more effective lymphodepletion preconditioning therapy for use in CAR T-cell therapy.

The Technology

Dr. Sanggu Kim of The Ohio State University has developed a methodology to specifically ablate T-cells in the body. This treatment method utilizes CD3e immunotoxin (CD3e-IT), an anti-CD3e monoclonal antibody conjugated with diphtheria toxin (DT), to specifically ablate Tcells in the body. Results indicate that CD3e-IT specifically ablates CXCR5+ follicular T cell (Tfh) populations, which is a key target in CAR T-cell therapy for HIV-1 and follicular T-cell cancers.