The clinical study progress of metabolically armed CD19 CAR-T has been selected for oral presentation in the Late-Breaking Minisymposium at AACR 2024 Annual Meeting.

The metabolically armed CD19 CAR-T clinical study (NCT05715606, NCT05747157), an Investigator-Initiated Clinical Trial (IIT), was co-led by Prof. Yugang Guo from the College of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Zhejiang University, Prof. Li Tang from the Institute of Bioengineering at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, and Prof. Wang Xingbing from the Department of Hematology, Centre for Leading Medicine and Advanced Technologies of IHM at the First Affiliated Hospital of University of Science and Technology of China. Recently, the abstract detailing the progress of this IIT clinical study has been chosen for oral presentation at the Late-Breaking Minisymposium during the 2024 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting. The meeting was scheduled to take place from April 5th–10th, 2024, in San Diego, California.

The clinical study of metabolically armed CD19 CAR-T aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the treatment in patents with relapsed/refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (r/r DLBCL) and acute B-lymphoblastic leukemia (r/r B-ALL). Presently, the remission rate of conventional CAR T cell therapy in these two diseases still requires improvement, and there is a high recurrence rate. Additionally, the high treatment cost places significant economic burden on patients, who face limited treatment options. Therefore, there is an urgent need for an innovative drug that is "efficient, durable and accessible" to address these challenges. Previous studies have shown that metabolically armed CAR-T exhibits significant advantages in resistance to T cell exhaustion and induces stem-like immune memory cells, suggesting potential for robust expansion and sustained efficacy in patients. Notably, in IIT clinical studies, twenty patients with r/r DLBCL or r/r B-ALL have achieved complete remission (CR) with extremely low treatment doses (ranging from 1% to 5% of commercialized CAR-T doses), indicating preliminary yet promising breakthrough efficacy.

The AACR Annual Meeting, a premier event in cancer research, attracts global attention and features cutting-edge research in the field. The inclusion of the metabolically armed CD19 CAR-T clinical study in the AACR 2024 oral presentation underscored the project's the innovation in scientific research and remarkable progress in clinical trials, garnering recognition from international peers. According to the abstract published on the official AACR website, a total of 387 studies were selected for Late-Breaking research at the 2024 AACR annual meeting, with over 30 studies from China. Late-Breaking Research is a crucial session dedicated to showcasing the latest discoveries and innovative therapies in cancer research, with only a selected chosen for oral presentations. Notably, the IIT clinical study of metabolically armed CD19 CAR-T, with its excellent clinical data, was the sole oral report from China in the Late-Breaking Minisymposium. This project presented its latest findings alongside six groundbreaking advancements from around the world, engaging in profound discussions with international colleagues.

This project was partial supported by Grant from Shenzhen Science and Technology Program (KJZD20230923114101003), Research Funds of Centre for Leading Medicine and Advanced Technologies of IHM (2023IHM01010, 2023IHM01011, and 2023IHM01014), Leman Biotech, and Zhejiang University.

Abstract link：https://www.abstractsonline.com/pp8/#!/20272/session/609