Numbers speak for themselves : 83% of the 63 evaluable children who received tisagenlecleucel in phase 2 trial had complete elimination of malignant cells in just 3 months, while no other therapeutic option are available.

For those of you living on the moon for the last 5 years, this is the « miracle cure » of cancer : CAR-T adoptive cell therapy. The approval of Novartis’ Kymriah made headlines in August this year as the first gene-edited cell therapy for cancer to be approved by FDA. Probably the first of a long series.

RD-Biotech/SYnAbs association has recently entered the field by providing a unique one-stop-shop solution for biotech players developing the mentioned approach.

RD Biotech starts with the expression of recombinant cancer antigen in order to specifically generate the adequate mouse monoclonal antibody against it. Thanks to molecular platform, the sequencing of VH and VL regions of this last structure allows us to create an extracellular single-chain variable fragment (scFv), first component of Chimeric antigen receptors, or CARs.

Following the collection of a patient's T cells by leukapheresis, the cells are genetically engineered by RD-Biotech through inactivated lentivirus particles containing the coding sequence for the CAR. In fact, lentivirus are used for the transfection of activated T cells, introducing the complete pattern of CAR : scFv derived from an antibody, joined to a spacer peptide and a transmembrane domain, which is further linked to the intracellular T cell signaling domains of the T cell receptor : CAR T cells have just been born right before our eyes !

Since we’re speaking of a mouse ScFv, the use of the rat-LOU as a host animal allows better immunization and thereby greater diversity of monoclonal antibodies against regions that would not be immunogenic if the mouse was used. Drawing on its expertise in secondary monoclonal antibodies, SYnAbs is now part of cell therapy game by generating rat monoclonal antibodies against mouse CAR-T.

Thanks to this new available tool, our partners are now able to select specific transfected CAR-T populations on flow cytometry platform !

Regarding therapeutic applications, RD-Biotech will then loop the loop, offering to its worldwide customers its expertise to humanize the generated ScFv, providing a better tolerance of the CAR-T for human body meanwhile maintaining the high functionality provided by the rat immune repertoire !

The best of both worlds for better antibodies tools in cell therapy!