Prescient Therapeutics Ltd has resolved the technical difficulties facing its OmniCAR program by creating a new generation of improved variants of the next-generation CAR-cell platform.
OmniCAR is designed to provide modular, controllable and reprogrammable CAR-cell therapies, offering a new level of flexibility and accessibility for cellular immunotherapy.
Some of the OmniCAR T-cells generated by the program were behaving unexpectedly, prompting the company to engage in a period of troubleshooting, a complex effort requiring multidisciplinary inputs including bioinformatics, protein engineering, immunology and cell biology.
The technical effort – achieved via collaboration with Peter McCallum Cancer Centre and the CSIRO – has been a success, overcoming the problems involved in previous OmniCAR constructs.
Increasing cell therapy optionality
“We are pleased that these technical issues have been resolved, and the OmniCAR program can once again move forward,” Prescient Therapeutics CEO James McDonnell said.
“The expertise and persistence of our team and collaborators have been instrumental in overcoming these challenges.
“OmniCAR has the potential to offer flexibility and optionality for cell therapies, and we are pleased that we are again on a path forward with this platform.”
To offer a more specific explanation of the technical success PTX has achieved, the T cells expressing the new OmniCAR variants demonstrated greatly improved safety when unarmed in both in vitro and in vivo studies.
When armed with binders, these new OmniCAR variants demonstrated highly effective tumour-killing activity in mice with Her2 positive tumours, with duration of efficacy exceeding that of the previous version of OmniCAR.
Prescient will undertake further validation studies over the next 12 months, providing guidance on the OmniCAR development plan as those studies progress.