The Development and Optimization of Anti-CLEC12A Targeted Umbilical Cord Blood Derived CAR-NK Cells in Acute Myeloid Leukaemia.
Wellcome Trust
National University of Ireland, Galway
Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is an aggressive form of blood cancer. Current chemotherapy-based treatments cure less than half of all patients with AML. In many cases a relapse occurs which is very difficult to treat effectively. ‘Leukaemia stem cells’ which resist the effects of chemotherapy are an important cause of AML relapse. New treatments which can target and destroy these cells may reduce the risk of relapse and increase cure rates.   In certain other forms of blood cancer new treatments called CAR-T cell therapies have been very effective. These treatments retrain a patient’s immune cells (T-cells) to recognise cancer cells. These treatments are harder to develop for AML as it is difficult to identify a suitable target on the cells for immune attack. In this project we are developing a therapy using ‘retrained’ natural killer cells (CAR-NK cells) which recognise AML cells and leukaemia stem cells. The target for the CAR-NK cells is a protein called CLEC12A. We are also investigating ways of improving the ability of these CAR-NK cells to recognise and destroy leukaemia cells. One example of this is combining CAR-NK cells with medications or changing their genetic code to further boost their activity.
5.2 Cellular and gene therapies