Nicola Ferrari, Director of Translational Science Lead for Respiratory and Immunology at AstraZeneca, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Engineering B cells to treat and study human disease
In this review, the authors provide an overview of recent developments in engineered B (eB) cell therapies, including early clinical studies, challenges to clinical implementation, and promising directions for leveraging B cell biology in future applications for cancer and chronic disease.
- B cells exhibit multiple unique features, including a natural propensity to interact with and regulate other immune cells, a high capacity to produce proteins, and a long cellular lifespan, which are being applied in eB cell therapies.
- B cell immunology has revealed the following three broad potential applications for engineered B cell therapies: engineered plasma cells (ePCs) for long-term in vivo production of biologics, eB cells to strengthen weak or generate new immune responses, and engineered regulatory B cells (eBregs) for regulating or limiting inappropriate immune responses.
- While engineered T cell products entered the clinic in 2006, progress with eB cell therapies has lagged. This delay partly reflects both the slower advances in gene delivery methods for primary human B cells and in optimal culture conditions for generating B cell products.
- The emergence of CRISPR– and transposon-based techniques has accelerated the development of eB cell products, leading to the initiation of the first clinical trials for ePCs.
- In the near future, these clinical trials and others in a growing pipeline will provide real-world answers regarding the safety, efficacy, and duration of eB cells.”
Title: Engineering B cells to treat and study human disease
Authors: Nikita Trivedi, Ragan A. Pitner, David J. Rawlings, Richard G. James
Read the Full Article.
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