Development of cellular therapy for CMML and the Immune landscape of response and resistance
Huda Salman
MDIndiana University
Project Term: November 1, 2023 - October 31, 2028
We will test the efficacy of CAR T cell therapy for CMML. We will modify the tumor microenvironment to enhance their efficacy. and we will upscale CAR T cells to the next level in terms of their genetic structure.
We would like to propose to develop a clinical trial to use CAR T cells for CMML. We have this CAR already in clinical trial for blood cancers that share the same target with CMML. The target is called CD4. The CD4CAR is already in clinical trial for other blood cancer and we have treated 3 patients with very promising results and minor toxicities. we have patients referred to us from all over the world as it is the only available CAR for CD4 positive lymphoid blood cancers and now we would like to use for CD4 positive myeloid blood cancers, CMML. We also want to study mechanisms of response and resistance to this CAR and improve on the CAR structure as we discover more about that. We think that that using a subset of T cells to manufacture the CD4CAR instead of taking all T cells into the manufacturing process will be more efficacious. We also will functionally analyze multiple factors in the marrow of CMML patients before and after treatment to examine why would some respond and some not.