Hung Trinh, Senior VP of Operations at Seneca Therapeutics, shared a post on LinkedIn about a recent article by Yan-Ruide Li at al, adding:
“UCLA scientists develop one-product-fits-all immunotherapy for pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer is among the deadliest forms of cancer, with most patients diagnosed after the disease has already spread throughout the body. The five-year survival rate for metastatic cases hovers around 2–3%, and median survival is often measured in months rather than years.
Now, UCLA researchers have engineered a novel immunotherapy that could offer new hope for a disease that has remained stubbornly resistant to treatment advances for decades. In a study published in PNAS, the team details how the therapy, called CAR-NKT cell therapy, can track down and destroy pancreatic tumors even after they’ve metastasized to other organs.
Targeting orthotopic and metastatic pancreatic cancer with allogeneic stem cell–engineered mesothelin-redirected CAR-NKT cells
Pancreatic cancer (PC) is one of the deadliest cancers, often diagnosed at advanced, hard-to-treat stages. Current cell-based therapies like CAR-T cells face major hurdles, including tumor variability, immune escape, and limited scalability. In this study, we developed an off-the-shelf immunotherapy using gene-engineered natural killer T cells derived from stem cells—called Allo15MCAR-NKT cells. These cells target pancreatic tumors through multiple killing mechanisms, resist immune exhaustion, and avoid rejection by the patient’s immune system. In preclinical models, they effectively controlled tumor growth and spread.
This work offers a promising step toward scalable, next-generation immunotherapy for PC, with the potential to address current treatment limitations and improve outcomes for patients with advanced disease.”
Title: Targeting orthotopic and metastatic pancreatic cancer with allogeneic stem cell–engineered mesothelin-redirected CAR-NKT cells
Authors: Yan-Ruide Li, Xinyuan Shen, Enbo Zhu, Zhe Li, Jie Huang, Thuc Le, Catrina Tran, Caius G. Radu, Lili Yang
Read the Full Article on PNAS
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