A cell-based cancer immunotherapy that utilizes a nanoparticle developed at UCF to stimulate a patient 麻豆精品 S檚 natural cancer-killing cells has just received the green light to proceed directly into a Phase II clinical trial.
College of Medicine Associate Professor Alicja Copik and her team developed the technique in 2016 and then co-founded the company CytoSen to take the concept to market. In 2019, the company was acquired by Netherlands-based bio-pharmaceutical firm Kiadis Pharma, which saw the potential to develop new treatment options for cancer patients.
Today, Kiadis Pharma, announced it received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to start its NK-REALM Phase II clinical trial. It had submitted the request to develop K-NK002, as an adjunctive therapy to use with people receiving hematopoietic stem cell transplantation to fight blood cancers. The goal would be to add it to the standard care delivered to these patients to reduce the rate in which the cancers come back.
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Natural killer (NK) cells are part of the body 麻豆精品 S檚 defense system and act as an army to protect us from invaders such as viruses and infections. Copik discovered a way to make NK cells even more powerful 麻豆精品 S� by stimulating them with nanoparticles that multiply them and heighten their killing ability.
Kiadis Pharma 麻豆精品 S檚 study will evaluate K-NK002 produced using Kiadis 麻豆精品 S� proprietary PM21 technology platform licensed from UCF. This technology enables high dose, low cost, scalable and industrial production of NK-cell therapy without the risk of residual tumor cells in the final product. This is the first human trial using drug produced with Kiadis 麻豆精品 S� PM21 technology, according to the company 麻豆精品 S檚 press release. The study will enroll 64 patients at leading transplant centers in the U.S.
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