Intellia Therapeutics Inc (NTLA)

[jondoeuk]

Currently, the company is using CRISPR/Cas9 screening to identify edits that can improve infiltration, expansion, potency, and persistence, while also prevent exhaustion of T-cells. Using T-cells with these properties should help in their development of more effective TCR-T cell therapies in a range of solid tumours. They identified both known and novel regulators, and importantly, a number of knock-out targets that accumulate in multiple, distinct TMEs and other targets that are specific.

Data from other groups have shown that deletion of a ribonuclease augmented the capacity of T-cells to control tumour growth by enhancing their ability to infiltrate and persist within the TME [1]. Similarly, a knockout of a transcription factor lead to the improvement in the cytolytic properties of T-cells [2].

They could go further and use TCRs that target both MHC Class-I and II antigens [3], along with delivering 'payloads' to modulate TMEs [4-9].

Refs:
1 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1821-z
2 https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(16)31149-7
3 https://www.jci.org/articles/view/120391
4 https://www.cell.com/cancer-cell/fulltext/S1535-6108(19)30101-1
5 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41590-020-0676-7
6 https://cancerimmunolres.aacrjournals.org/content/8/6/743
7 https://cancerimmunolres.aacrjournals.org/content/8/4/518
8 https://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/71/17/5697.long
9 https://www.jci.org/articles/view/58814