IsoPlexis research offers hope for targeted CAR-T treatment

US-based biotech firm IsoPlexis has presented findings from research using the company’s precision engineering platform, called IsoCode.

The data show the potential to predict whether cancer patients will respond to CAR-T cell therapy prior to treatment, as well as to improve both pre-infusion potency testing and cell product design.

These findings, the result of a collaboration with oncology specialists Kite Pharma (Nasdaq: KTE), were presented at the American Association for Cancer Research’s Annual Meeting.

Researchers used IsoCode (previously referred to as SCBC) to analyze CAR-T cell therapy products for 20 patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and were able to predict complete or partial patient response to the product, with statistical significance.

Kite vice president Adrian Bot said: “Through this research, we were able to highlight the important role a functionally versatile subpopulation of CAR T cells may play in the fight against cancer, leading to new ways to characterize and optimize T-cell products. These insights were made possible by using the IsoPlexis technology.”

IsoPlexis scientific advisory board member Arnold Levine, of Princeton University, said: “The quality and precision of these data captured by IsoPlexis technology is exceptional and permits for the first time real precision medicine and early intervention in T-cell production.”