Stockhead Special Report: Arovella tackles CAR-T’s limitations in cancer treatment
Special Report: Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR-T) cell therapy is a rapidly growing frontier in cancer research, with Australian biotech Arovella Therapeutics at the forefront and working to overcome limitations of this promising treatment.
Arovella Therapeutics at forefront of overcoming limitations of CAR-T cell therapy for cancer
Company uses healthy donor-derived iNKT cells, engineered with CARs to target specific cancer antigens
Arovella looks to start phase I trial this year for lead product ALA-101
CAR-T involves reprogramming a patient’s own immune cells to better recognise and destroy cancer with some early success from treating blood cancers like leukaemia and lymphoma.
But like every emerging treatment strategy, CAR-T is not without its challenges, which Arovella Therapeutics (ASX:ALA) is trying to resolve and in turn see the treatment more widely available for tackling blood cancers and also for solid tumours, a far greater challenge.
The company’s proprietary allogeneic (one to many) platform uses healthy donor-derived Natural Killer T (iNKT) cells, engineered with chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) to target specific cancer antigens.
CEO Dr Michael Baker said the approach offered significant advantages over traditional autologous (one to one) CAR-T therapies, including enhanced safety profiles, scalability and the potential for off-the-shelf availability.
