Runsheng cells: accurately recognize new antigens, and realize personalized treatment of tumor by combining "active + passive" double immunity of cell therapy

Author: Wang Chan in the anti-cancer track, the human thinking burst out an unprecedented spark of innovation The road to cancer prevention, from the initial helpless, to the surgical removal of tumors, to chemotherapy, radiotherapy, systemic treatment, is too long, and cancer is coming, and has become the second leading cause of death in the world With the advent of car-t therapy, it is announced that the anti-cancer process of human beings has entered the track of immunotherapy in an all-round way However, the existing immunotherapy is not satisfactory, there are still a large number of tumor patients can not get effective treatment The pathological difference of tumor patients is one of the reasons why it is difficult to carry out broad-spectrum treatment Dr Ruan Runsheng, founder of Runsheng cell, has been engaged in the research of cell and gene diagnosis and treatment of tumor immunity and senile diseases in the medical department of Zurich University, Switzerland, and has many years of clinical experience He said frankly that the anti-cancer needs of clinical cancer patients are the main driving force for his pioneering research and development of innovative tumor drugs "At present, there are still many cancer patients who cannot get effective treatment The world is looking for an anti-cancer therapy that can inhibit the growth of tumor cells and prolong the life of patients without any side effects " From the perspective of immunotherapy, Dr Ruan Runsheng is disappointed by the efficacy of some targeted drugs used to block specific tumor pathways "Ten years ago, targeted drugs were favored by everyone, but now with the passage of time, some patients have developed drug resistance, and because of blocking the physiological pathway of cell growth, some side effects have occurred to some extent Life " "At present, only recognized cell therapy can eliminate the side effects of treatment, but how to apply technology to cell therapy to achieve good anti-cancer effect?" he said? This is our issue " Tvac ® therapy: individualized precision combined immunotherapy in 2018, a paper entitled "rational combinations of in vivo cancer antigen pricing and optional T-cell therapy mobile immune and clinical responses in terminal" Cancer (clinical efficacy of tumor antigen vaccine combined with adoptive T cells in the treatment of advanced cancer and tumor antigen specific immune response) was published in the well-known cancer magazine cancer immunology In immunotherapy for cancer immunology, this paper primarily introduces the effect of the researchers after screening tumor mutation gene, finding new antigen, preparing therapeutic vaccine, injecting human body, extracting specific T cells in vivo, expanding and culturing them in vitro, and then transferring them back to the body for adoptive cell therapy The experimental results are very considerable Behind this paper is Dr Ruan Runsheng's team, which also created the core technology of Runsheng cells, tvac (individualized precision combined with immunotherapy) The full name of Runsheng cell is Guangzhou Runsheng cell Pharmaceutical Technology Co., Ltd., which is a biotechnology company focusing on research and development of cell medicine and clinical transformation research The core members of the company's team are composed of experts and professors in bioinformatics, tumor molecular biology, tumor immunology, etc from National University of Singapore, Stanford University School of medicine, Harvard Medical School and other famous universities To understand the "tvac ® (individualized precision combined immunotherapy)" of Runsheng cells, we can intuitively understand several major characteristics of the therapy from its name: "individualized", "precise" and "combined" Dr Ruan Runsheng introduced their innovative therapy to reporters: Runsheng cells will first analyze the DNA of tumor patients and find out the mutation gene of tumor patients Because of the diversity of gene mutations, the mutation genes of each patient are different The Runsheng cells need to analyze the DNA of each patient, which is the embodiment of "individualization" Finding the mutated genes of tumor patients is only the first step of tvac ® Runsheng cells will compare the tumor cells of patients with normal cells to determine which mutations have been translated into proteins and which have not been expressed The products encoded by these mutated genes are well-known "new antigens" This way of finding the "new antigens" of each tumor patient one by one from the gene level is the core of the "accuracy" of tvac therapy However, not all the new antigens (proteins) found will trigger the immune response of the body Using proprietary technology, Runsheng cells can accurately identify the proteins that can activate the immune response of the body, and call them "tumor new peptide chain" The main function of finding new peptide chain is to prepare therapeutic vaccine According to the "tumor new peptide chain" of patients, several to a dozen of Runsheng cells are selected to prepare a mixed therapeutic vaccine, and then the immune system of patients is activated by subcutaneous injection When the immune system produces specific T cells, Runsheng cells will extract the specific T cells, carry out a large number of in vitro culture and expansion, and finally these expanded specific T cells will be reinfusion Back to the patient's body, the "combined" treatment was realized Dr Ruan Runsheng called tvac ® therapy an innovative therapy combining "active immunity" and "passive immunity" Active immunity refers to the active stimulation of patients' immune response through the injection of therapeutic vaccine into patients' bodies Passive immunity mainly refers to the passive immune response of the specific T cells back into patients' bodies At present, Runsheng cell has applied for the trademark patent of tvac ® The company plans to apply for the NDA of tvac ® in the next three years, which will be officially used in the clinical treatment of tumors This therapy has been explored since Dr Ruan Runsheng was engaged in the research of tumor immunity at the University of Zurich in Switzerland After years of research and experiments, the team has developed innovative tumor therapy Previously, Dr Ruan Runsheng's team applied the therapy for five or six years, and experimented on 300 patients with advanced cancer who could not be cured by the existing therapy The survival rate of patients within three years was significantly improved It is worth mentioning that since tvac ® therapy with run on cells is completely personalized treatment, the cancer types of advanced cancer patients tested are various, not limited to a certain type of cancer It is also a success in the experiment, which gives Dr Ruan the confidence to put the therapy into practice Tumor vaccine: Based on the principle of tvac therapy, one of the most difficult points in the precise prevention of tumor recurrence is tumor recurrence After canceration, healthy cells will be distributed in all parts of the body, and the treatment of specific parts may not cure the tumor, resulting in the "spring breeze" of the tumor If there is a vaccine that can prevent the cancer patients from suffering from the same kind of cancer after injecting one dose when the cancer patients recover from the serious disease, the value of this vaccine is self-evident This is a big application scenario of tvac ® therapy "For some patients with early stage cancer, when their tumor tissue is removed, we can analyze their fresh tumor tissue, and then customize the tumor vaccine based on the principle of tvac ® therapy, so as to prevent the recurrence of the same type of cancer in patients." Ruan explained Due to the variability of tumor genes, Runsheng cells emphasize that when preparing tumor vaccines for patients, it is necessary to obtain fresh tumor tissues of tumor patients as soon as possible to prevent further mutation of tumor genes or tumor metastasis by external stimulation From the preparation to the completion of the vaccine, the run-up cells can ensure that the tumor vaccine can be customized for patients in about six weeks The research team is also improving the production process to further shorten the vaccine preparation time Although tvac ® therapy is theoretically possible to cure all kinds of cancer, Runsheng cells start to develop clinical pipeline from liver cancer, because the duration of liver cancer is relatively short, which can speed up the company's clinical trials Dr Ruan also said that in the future, the company will carry out clinical trials of other tumors in succession It is reported that in the second half of 2019, Runsheng cell raised 9 million yuan of start-up capital The company is planning to open a new round of financing, and initially intends to raise about 30 million yuan, release about 10% of the equity The financing income is mainly used for clinical trial research, team talent recruitment and laboratory construction Jeni turtle