Takeda and MD Anderson Cancer Center reach a cooperation to develop natural killer cell anticancer therapy

Today, Takeda and the UT MD Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas announced a research collaboration to jointly develop the cord blood derived chimeric antigen receptor natural killer cell therapy (car-nk) to accelerate the clinical development of B-cell cancer and other cancers According to the press release, the treatment is expected to become the first car cell therapy approved for outpatient treatment Different from the car-t cell therapy of patients' own T cells by genetic engineering, the car NK cell therapy of MD Anderson Cancer Center is to separate natural killer cells (NK) from cord blood, and insert the chimeric antigen receptor (car) targeting CD19 on the cell surface to enhance the effectiveness of attacking specific tumors CD19 is a specific cell surface antigen expressed in different stages of B lymphocyte differentiation The treatment also added interleukin-15 (IL-15) to C-cell therapy to enhance the proliferation and survival of car-nk cells in vivo A major drawback of cat-t cell therapy is that it usually takes several weeks to complete the genetic engineering transformation, and car-nk therapy is expected to solve this problem NK cells isolated from cord blood of unrelated donors are easy to store for patients' needs, and have the potential to bring convenience for outpatient treatment In addition, patients receiving car-t therapy will have cytokine release syndrome (CRS), but NK cells will not secrete inflammatory factors that cause CRS, avoiding similar toxic reactions Preclinical studies have shown that some types of leukemia and lymphoma cells can be eliminated by engineering modification of natural killer cells derived from donated cord tissue At present, MD Anderson Cancer Center is in the 1 / 2-year clinical study to verify the car-nk therapy targeting CD19 for the treatment of patients with recurrent / refractory B-cell cancer Photo source: 123rf According to the terms of the agreement, Takeda will obtain the right to use the exclusive car-nk platform of MD Anderson Cancer Center, and be responsible for the development, manufacturing and commercial development of the cooperative R & D products, including car-nk cell therapy targeting CD19 and B cell mature antigen (BCMA) MD Anderson Cancer Center will receive the corresponding advance payment and potential milestone payment, as well as the future sales share of the drugs developed in this cooperation "We hope to optimize existing therapies by developing car-nk cell therapies available to outpatients so that more patients can receive effective, rapid and minimally toxic therapies," said Katy, Professor of stem cell transplantation and cell therapy at MD Anderson Cancer Center "Takeda is committed to developing the next generation of cell therapy and has expertise in hematological malignancies that can help us advance the further development of car NK cell therapy," said rezvani, MD "The car-nk platform of MD Anderson Cancer Center represents the therapeutic potential of a new generation of cell therapy," said Andy plump, MD, President of R & D Department of Takeda company "We need to rapidly carry out R & D work, and hope to launch key research on car-nk therapy targeting CD19 in 2021." reference material: [1] Takeda and MD Anderson Announce Collaboration to Accelerate the Development of Clinical-Stage, Off-The-Shelf CAR NK-Cell Therapy Platform, Retrieved November 5, 2019, from https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191105005250/en/Takeda-MD-Anderson-Announce-Collaboration-Accelerate-Development A kind of