Non-invasive Probes to Determine Efficacy of Cancer Therapies

Application

A real-time, non-invasive probe to determine the efficacy of cancer immunotherapies.

Key Benefits

Determines immunotherapy success in patients.
CAR cells can be tested before putting it back in the patients.
Simple diagnostic with readout in 30 minutes compared to 2-3 days.

Market Summary

Lymphoblastic leukemia is one of the most common types of childhood cancer that commences in the bone marrow. In lymphoblastic leukemia, the bone marrow makes too many immature white blood cells called lymphoblasts. These lymphoblasts crowd out healthy blood cells and can cause a number of problems, such as infections, fatigue, weight loss, and easy bruising and bleeding. These symptoms have the potential to be terminal for certain patients. Blinatumomab is an immunotherapy for B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, but it is not effective in all patients. Only 47% of patients receiving blinatumomab immunotherapy achieved a complete response in B-ALL. Many patients lose their response to blinatumomab over time, and 92% of patients who lose their response to blinatumomab still have a high level of CD19+ blasts, suggesting that blinatumomab failure may be due to a poor T-cell response.

Technical Summary

Emory researchers have developed a novel real-time, non-invasive probe to determine the efficacy of cancer immunotherapies. The probe is made of DNA that is attached to a glass surface. The DNA is designed to present an immunotherapeutic marker of interest to T-cells. When T-cells encounter the probe, they exert a mechanical force on the DNA, which causes a large increase in fluorescence intensity. The fluorescence intensity can be read using conventional fluorescence microscopy or a 96-well plate reader-based assay. The probe has several advantages over traditional methods of evaluating cancer immunotherapies. It is real-time, non-invasive, and rapid, meaning it can provide feedback about the quality and function of T-cells in real-time without the need for any invasive procedures. The probe can also run tests in as little as 30 minutes, compared to 48 hours or more for traditional methods. This novel technology has the potential to improve the efficacy and safety of cancer immunotherapies. Furthermore, it could assist in identifying patients who are more likely to respond to therapy and could also be used to monitor patients' responses to therapy over time.