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Nektar and Collaborators Announce Publication in Blood Advances of Preclinical Data Demonstrating NKTR-255, a Novel Polymer-conjugated Human IL-15, Improves Efficacy of CD19-targeted CAR-T Cell Immunotherapy
-- Polymer-conjugated IL-15 (NKTR-255) induced CD8+ T cell and natural killer cell proliferation in vivo -- -- NKTR-255 enhanced the efficacy of human CD19
About this update from Nektar Therapeutics
[{"type":"text","content":"-- Polymer-conjugated IL-15 (NKTR-255) induced CD8+ T cell and natural killer cell proliferation in vivo --\n-- NKTR-255 enhanced the efficacy of human CD19 CAR-T cells in a xenogeneic lymphoma model --\nSAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Nektar Therapeutics (Nasdaq: NKTR) today announced the publication of preclinical data in Blood Advances, the open-access journal of the American Society of Hematology, highlighting the effects of NKTR-255, a novel polymer-conjugated human IL-15, on the efficacy of human CD19 CAR-T cells in a xenogeneic lymphoma model and on CD8+ T effector cell (Tcell) and natural killer (NK) cell proliferation in non-human primates.\n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n\n \n\"The findings published today reinforce the foundational rationale behind the clinical development program we're pursuing of NKTR-255 enhancing CAR-T cell therapies,\" said Jonathan Zalevsky, Ph.D., Chief Research & Development Officer at Nektar. \"We are looking forward to progressing our research in combination with cell therapies and are excited to launch our Phase 2/3 clinical trial of NKTR-255 following approved CAR-T cell therapies in patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell Lymphoma.\"\nThe data from this publication demonstrate that NKTR-255 not only enhanced in vivo proliferation and accumulation of T and NK cells in non-human primates, but also demonstrated enhanced in vivo antitumor efficacy of human CD19 CAR-T in lymphoma-bearing immunodeficient mice.\n\"In contrast to mice treated with CAR-T alone, those that received CAR-T and NKTR-255 had markedly higher CAR-T counts in blood and marrow that were sustained after tumor clearance, without evidence of persistent proliferation or ongoing activation/exhaustion assessed by Ki-67 and inhibitory receptor co-expression,\" said Dr. Cameron Turtle, senior author on the publication and CLEARbridge Chair of Cancer Immunotherapy at Sydney Medical School. \"These data support the ongoing clinical research of combined CAR-T and NKTR-255 for B-cell malignancies.\"\nKey findings are summarized below:\nSerum IL-15 concentration is independently associated with longer CD19 CAR-T persistence in humansNKTR-255 promotes CD8+ effector and memory T and NK cell accumulation in non-human primatesNKTR-255 enhances proliferation and survival of human CD19 CAR-T at low target cell abundanceNKT...