MELBOURNE, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) -- Researchers in Australia have developed a gene-editing platform that could give doctors more control over cell therapies, making them more practical for patients with complex immune conditions.
The new approach using prime editing could allow clinicians to use existing immune-suppressing drugs as a "control dial" for cell therapies and help corrected cells survive in the body, according to a recent statement released by Australia's Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI).
Cell and gene therapies involve modifying a patient's immune cells in the lab and returning them to the body, but clinicians have limited ways to control them afterward. This is particularly challenging for patients who need ongoing immunosuppression, as drugs used to control disease or protect transplanted organs can also suppress the therapeutic cells, researchers said.
The WEHI-led research aims to make cell and gene therapies more feasible for people who need ongoing immunosuppression, including those with rare immune disorders, organ or stem cell transplant recipients and patients receiving cell therapies for cancer, the statement said.
The researchers have turned existing medicines into a potential control system for future cell therapies. Because it uses common drugs, the platform may be more practical to translate into the clinic than strategies requiring entirely new medicines, according to the study published in Blood. ■