The company will now proceed to its next phase of research at the world-leading Peter Mac cancer research centre.

Clinical stage oncology company Prescient Therapeutics (ASX:PTX) has announced another crucial step forward in the development of its CAR-T cancer treatment solutions.

The company confirmed that manufacturing is complete for a range of binders which target multiple cancers.

The work was carried out by a leading US manufacturer, and their construction successfully incorporated SpyTag – a central requirement for covalent binding to immune cells as part of Prescient’s proprietary OmniCAR system.

Concurrently, Prescient has also taken delivery of lentiviral vectors that will be used to produce CAR-T cells expressing SpyCatcher.

“Together, the SpyTagged binders and CAR-T cells expressing SpyCatcher form the basis for the unique, modular OmniCAR platform,” Prescient said.

 

Next-gen OmniCAR solution

Prescient’s OmniCAR platform is being developed as a market-leading solution in the field of CAR-T (Chimeric antigen receptor T-cells) – the engineering of the immune system’s T-cells to target specific proteins.

Before the T-cells can attack cancerous cells, they need to be matched with a targeting ligand, also known as a binder.

The activated T-cell can then be controlled to target and kill tumours on-demand.

In that context, the successful development of the SpyTag binding mechanism is a “crucial milestone” in Prescient’s OmniCAR treatment pathway, said CEO Steven Yatomi-Clarke.

The binders work against a range of cancer targets, including acute leukemia, breast cancer and glioblastoma multiforme – an aggressive form of cancer that usually begins in the brain.

“Successfully producing binders will enable our research team to produce CAR-T cells for our three in-house programs,” Yatomi-Clarke said.

“We are also pleased to have timely delivery of lentiviral vectors, which is rate-limiting in manufacturing CAR-Ts and have proven to be a bottleneck for many developers.”

Along with those key manufacturing developments, the company’s research team at the world-renowned Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne has also advanced all the relevant preparatory work for the next phase of OmniCAR development.

“The delivery of the binders and vectors now enables the team to progress the development of our in-house next-generation cell therapies,” Yatomi-Clarke said.

The OmniCAR program is being built by Prescient in its capacity as the global licence holder for the technology, which was developed by leading research teams at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Oxford.

Along with the program itself, to develop improved treatment solutions for different forms of cancer, Prescient is also building an OmniCAR platform that will allow it to license the technology for collaborations and partnerships.

In the wake of its exciting updates on the delivery of binders and lentiviral vectors, Prescient will be holding an online briefing for shareholders at 11am on Thursday, July 1.

This article was developed in collaboration with Prescient Therapeutics, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.

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