
IN8bio's 'off-the-shelf' gamma delta T cells stave off relapse for high-risk leukemia patients in very early data cut
With eyes set on the future of cell therapy, researchers are looking to leverage a growing menagerie of immune cells to engineer a better generation of tumor fighters. One type showing early promise is gamma delta T cells, and now another biotech in that space is trotting out promising — if limited — results.
Three acute myeloid leukemia patients dosed with IN8bio’s off-the-shelf gamma delta T cells remained in remission after a stem cell transplant as long as 20 months after receiving their cells, offering an early vote of confidence for the small biotech’s approach, the company said Thursday.
The three patients were still in remission at 20 months, 18 months and around six months after dosing, IN8bio said. About 50% of patients with post-transplant, high-risk AML relapse within the first year, the company said in a release.
Gamma delta T cells are the latest in drug developers’ efforts to engineer members of the innate immune system to fight stubborn cancers without the onerous safety profile of current-generation T cell therapies. Off-the-shelf, or allogeneic, therapies are engineered from donor cells rather than autologous therapies, which are derived from a patient’s own.
Because this program, dubbed INB-100, relies on donor cells, IN8bio is keeping a close eye on graft-versus-host disease, and the early results look promising. There were no treatment-related Grade 3 events or higher, including serious cases of GVHD 100 days after infusion, and no cytokine release syndrome or neurotoxicity events were reported.
Gamma delta T cells, rare cells that bridge the gap in function between the innate and adaptive immune system, have earned researchers’ interest due to their regulatory and cancer-fighting properties as well as a lack of alpha and beta T cell receptors, which drive GVHD, potentially cracking open more promise as allogeneic therapies. Promising data cuts like these have only helped drive even more investment into this space.
Earlier this month, Adicet, another player here, rolled out early data showing its own off-the-shelf candidate AD-001 posted two complete responses across four patients in an early Phase I study testing the drug in patients with heavily pretreated B cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Adicet engineered AD-001 with a CD20-targeting chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) onto donor cells.
At a low dose of 30 million cells, one patient posted a complete response with another seeing a partial response, which Adicet described as a “near CR.” A third evaluable patient progressed and two other patients in the low-dose arm of the study dropped out before the 28-day mark.
Unlike IN8bio, which genetically modifies donors’ cells to be resistant to chemotherapy, Adicet doesn’t genetically engineer, cutting away the potential for unwanted mutagenesis, which may have sidelined allo cell therapy player Allogene’s lead program earlier this year.
Acepodia, meanwhile, has plans to file an IND for its own CD20-targeting CAR gamma delta T cell later this month. And in October, Takeda acquired GammaDelta Therapeutics, which is developing what it calls allogeneic variable delta 1 (VD1) gamma delta T cells that entered the clinic this summer.