An­ti­body strat­e­gy to aug­ment ver­sa­tile im­mune cells sparks in­vest­ment in French biotech

A small frac­tion of ver­sa­tile im­mune cells — prized for their abil­i­ty to hack the tu­mor mi­croen­vi­ron­ment — are shap­ing up to be the next wave of im­munother­a­pies. These gam­ma delta T cells, in con­trast to their pop­u­lar al­pha be­ta coun­ter­parts har­nessed by CAR-T ther­a­pies, do not re­ly on spe­cif­ic anti­gens but kill when pre­sent­ed with gener­ic ex­pres­sions of in­fec­tion or dis­ease.

Most play­ers in the field are work­ing on ways to im­prove ex­ist­ing cell ther­a­pies, by shoring up ef­fi­ca­cy, lim­it­ing tox­i­c­i­ty, mak­ing the tech­nol­o­gy more ac­ces­si­ble with “off-the-shelf” ap­proach­es ver­sus the ex­ist­ing com­plex au­tol­o­gous mod­el, and ex­pand­ing it to oth­er can­cer types be­yond hema­to­log­i­cal ma­lig­nan­cies by en­list­ing lym­pho­cytes such as gam­ma delta T cells. These ef­forts are not try­ing to rein­vent the CAR-T wheel, but in­deed smoothen it so it moves faster, bet­ter and stronger for a broad­er group of can­cer pa­tients.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER