Invention:
This technology features a method for altering immune cell composition of peripheral blood stem cell grafts in donors or patients prior to collection and transplantation to treat blood and immune deficiency diseases. The technology aims to alter immune cell subtypes in the graft to evoke increased graft-versus-tumor effects and reduce the incidence of graft-versus-host-disease and latent viral reactivation.
Background:
Hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantations are effective in treating blood cancers and post-transplant infections. Every year, approximately 60,000 people worldwide receive HSC transplantation for treatment of blood cancers and other genetic disorders. An estimated total of 174,250 people in the United States are expected to be diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma or myeloma in 2018. These diseases are expected to cause the deaths of an estimated 58,100 people in the US in 2018. HSC transplantation is a potentially curative treatment, however, viral infections and disease relapse are a common occurrence accounting for 78% of all deaths in the post-transplant period.
Applications:
- Method to alter immune cell subsets in peripheral blood stem cell grafts
- Increase graft-versus-tumor effects of the graft
- Reduce the incidence and severity of graft-versus-host-disease
- Mobilize virus-specific T-cells to prevent post-transplant viral disease
- Blood cancer and immune deficiency diseases
Advantages:
- Preventive medicine
- Cost-saving, avoids costs of post-transplant infections treatments
