Invention Summary:
Dendritic cell-based immunotherapies have been tested for the treatment of cancer patients with limited success. The limited success is probably due to the ineffective activation of specific T-cells by injected dendritic cells. In vitro generation of memory T-cells that can respond to cancer cells could circumvent ineffective T-cell activation, thereby greatly enhancing the efficiency of cancer immunotherapy.
Rutgers researchers have developed a method to generate polyclonal, antigen-specific memory T-cells in vitro. The T-cell generation in vitro has been demonstrated using the OT-1 (a short peptide sequence of ovalbumin, OVA) and MART-1 peptides as model antigens to generate mouse and human memory T-cell, respectively. The authenticity of memory T-cell generated in vitro is verified by the expression of memory T-cell markers and antigen specific responses to each antigen. Furthermore, this method can generate memory T-cells with weak cancer antigens because cytotoxic mouse memory T-cells were generated with cell homogenates from isogenic melanoma with known weak antigenicity.
Advantages:
- Control both immunization of dendritic cells and their interactions with T-cells.
- Generate memory T-cells against weak cancer antigens.
- Circumvent cancer-mediated immune silencing.
- Memory T-cells have longevity and highest potency in immune protection.
Market Applications:
- Use of memory T-cells as a vaccine against cancer and infectious diseases.
- Identification of new cancer-reactive T-cell receptors (TCRs) for engineering new TCR-T cell therapies.
- Identification of new cancer neoantigens that are likely to induce memory T-cell responses.
Intellectual Property & Development Status: Patent pending. Available for licensing and/or research collaboration.
