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news.Germany-based biopharmaceutical firm apceth has entered into collaboration with University of Cologne's Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne (CMMC) to combine technologies and expertise of both the entities to develop new immunotherapies for solid tumors and haematological malignancies.
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The collaboration is based on combinations of Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cells, developed at the laboratory of professor Hinrich Abken against multiple tumor-associated antigens, and apceth-developed engineered mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs).
The German firm is developing autologous and allogeneic engineered MSCs that migrate to tumors and sites of injury or inflammation, based on their natural homing capabilities, where they express therapeutic transgenes.
CART cells are based on T-cells taken from patients and designed to target and destroy tumor cells that express specific markers.
The partnership will focus on the use of engineered MSCs to promote the local activation of CART cells within tumors.
According to the company, this approach will therefore increase the specificity of CART immunotherapies, as activation of CART cells will be limited outside of tumors.
apceth CEO Dr Christine Günther said: "Immunotherapies have revolutionized cancer care and brought hope to many patients. However, the tumor specificity of many of these approaches remains suboptimal.
"We see the powerful combination of apceth gmMSCs with CARTs as a great opportunity to overcome some of these barriers and boost the specificity and clinical efficacy of CART cell approaches.
"We are delighted to be working alongside Prof Hinrich Abken, a pioneer in the field with tremendous experience in CART biology and see many synergies with apceth’s gmMSC platform technology and our track record in preclinical and clinical development of genetically-modified cells for clinical trials."
As part of the deal, apceth will develop and optimize gmMSCs that can generate a pro-inflammatory tumor microenvironment.
These gmMSCs will be combined with different CART cells, which are developed against multiple pre-agreed cancer-specific markers found on solid tumors and haematological malignancies and tested in various preclinical models.
The company noted that successful candidates will be optimized and further developed for clinical trials.