Autolus Release: New CAR-T Approach For The Treatment Of T-Cell Lymphomas Presented At The 2016 American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting

London, 5th December 2016 – Autolus Limited, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialisation of next-generation engineered T-cell therapies for hematological and solid tumors, announced that data on a new approach for the treatment of T-cell lymphomas were presented today by Dr Paul Maciocia, Cancer Institute, University College London (UK) at the American Society of Hematology 58th Annual Meeting in San Diego*.

T-cell lymphomas are a family of rare cancers of clonal origin with very poor outcome for patients in relapse. All T cell lymphomas express T cell receptor constant region beta chain (TRBC) which exists in each T cell as either TRBC1 or TRBC2 isoform. Analysis of normal T cells showed that immunity against Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) and cytomegalovirus (CMV) is distributed evenly between TRBC1- and TRBC2-positive T cells, suggesting that depletion of either TRBC1- or TRBC2-positive T cell compartment should not impact viral immunity. A CAR with specificity for TRBC1 was tested in vitro and vivo and showed a high level of activity, eliminating all TRBC1 positive T cells, while preserving the TRBC2-positive T cells.

Commenting on the presentation, Professor David Linch, University College Hospital, London said:

“There are very few treatment options for patients relapsing from T-cell lymphoma and their prognosis is poor. The data demonstrates that directing CAR-T cell therapy against a specific variant of TRBC has the potential to eliminate T cell lymphoma without eradicating the entire T cell compartment and thus preserving the patient’s ability to fight viral disease.”

The programme is currently in pre-clinical development with a Phase I clinical study expected to start in H2 2017.

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* https://ash.confex.com/ash/2016/webprogram/Paper90147.html

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