Hi, my name is Luciano Costa. I'm a myeloma physician in the University of Alabama at Birmingham. I'm here at the IMS meeting in Rio de Janeiro, and I had a chance to present a symposium on the evolving landscape of cellular therapy, of CAR-T cell therapy in earlier lines of treatment of multiple myeloma, and particularly how can we improve those already very effective therapy to both reduce the toxicity but also enhance the duration of those responses. And we talk about majorly three things, right? One is to how to improve the targeting of those CAR-Ts. As many of you know, the CAR-Ts that are currently available, which is, you know, Abac, Mincar, Vic, they both target BCMA. However, BCMA is often lost as a part of the cell becoming resistant to those therapies. And there are other targets that are relevant, for example, GPRC5D, which is the target of the existing Taqueta map by specific cell engangers. So there are several pursuits being taken. One of them is developing CAR-Ts that simultaneously target BCMA and GPRC5D, reducing the risk of the cell being resistant or developing resistance by dropping one of those targets. The other approach that is more in the more immediate future is planning a therapy that incorporates a CAR-T cell on one target and a by specific cell engager on a different target. For example, a BCMA CAR-T followed by a GPRC5D by specific cell engager or vice versa. And we have a share a little bit of our experience with, you know, with just about 10 patients where we use GPRC5D by specific Taqueta map as a bridging after collection of the cells, why the cells are being manufactured before the infusion of a BCMA specific CAR-T, which so far great success and great safety and very reassuring results. The other approach that is being pursued is the use of a new class of drugs called cell mods, like the zygdomyde and ibertamide to accomplish a few things. Have an antimyalome effect on their own, but also they have an enhancing effect on the T cells through their immunoregulatory effect to make those CAR-T cells work better, but also to last longer. Because if we look at how CAR-T cells stop working, most of the time is not because the cell drops the target or the cell is not strong enough, is because those CAR-Ts don't last in our body forever. They last an average about six months or sometimes a little bit less. So by using the cell mods to reinvigorate those T cells and help those T cells stay around longer, you potentially can make the response that we get after CAR-Ts, which is already very deep and durable, to be even more durable and extend this period of time when the patient is doing well with a therapy that can be very convenient because it's an oral once a day treatment and that is also being pursued through several ongoing clinical trials.
HealthTree • October 8, 2024