The overwhelming focus of research into the cellular immune response to SARS-CoV-2 has been investigating the reaction of vaccinated people, in an effort to establish correlates of protection required to fight off infection. But with a majority in many African and Asian countries still unvaccinated, it also is important to understand the natural cellular immune response, and to track the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants with the potential to escape immunity in these populations.
LONDON – T cells generated as a result of infection with common cold coronaviruses provide cross-protection against being infected with SARS-CoV-2, according to a new study.
LONDON – Intensive monitoring of health care workers at two hospitals in London showed that despite having a blood biomarker of infection, 58 of them did not test positive for COVID-19 at any point, suggesting they may have been clearing subclinical infections before seroconversion.
Marengo Therapeutics Inc. is opening up a new front in the war on cancer by selectively deploying a tumor-infiltrating subpopulation of T cells, which can be activated by a newly identified, antibody-based mechanism. The Cambridge, Mass.-based company is taking forward a scientific concept that has been germinating for several years at founding investor and company creator ATP, which has now launched the firm with an $80 million series A round. Marengo is gearing up for a first clinical trial in 2022. “It’s a new chapter in T-cell biology,” CEO Zhen Su told BioWorld.
There’s a whole group of biotechs trying to create a tougher next-generation CAR T-cell therapy that could have a powerful effect on solid tumors after the technology’s first successes in blood cancer. One of those is London-based Leucid Bio Ltd., which has just raised £11.5 million (nearly US$16 million) in series A financing to develop next-generation CAR T therapies that are able to make it through to solid tumors and attack them.
It's a good news, bad news scenario for exhausted T cells in chronic infections. Multiple groups of investigators reported in the July 26, 2021, online issue of NatureImmunology that even after a chronic hepatitis C virus infection was cured, T cells that had become dysfunctional during the infection retained epigenetic "scars" that prevented them from becoming fully functional memory T cells.
It's a good news, bad news scenario for exhausted T cells in chronic infections. Multiple groups of investigators reported in the July 26, 2021, online issue of NatureImmunology that even after a chronic hepatitis C virus infection was cured, T cells that had become dysfunctional during the infection retained epigenetic "scars" that prevented them from becoming fully functional memory T cells.
ISA Pharmaceuticals BV has closed a €26 million (US$30.76 million) funding round to advance its cancer immunotherapy product, ISA-101b, in the clinic, as the company aims to tackle the low response rates that hold back this therapeutic approach.
DUBLIN – Mnemo Therapeutics SAS emerged from stealth mode having raised €75 million (US$91 million) in a series A financing round to take forward a new chimeric antigen T-cell (CAR T) platform, which is focused on selectively targeting both solid and liquid tumors expressing a previously undescribed class of antigens and on improving the persistence and fitness of CAR T cells.
Japanese scientists led by Shin Kaneko, an associate professor in the Center for iPS Cell Research and Application at Kyoto University, have developed the first practical bioengineering strategy for generating a universal pluripotent stem cell.
