Laurence Cooper, M.D., Ph.D. University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

IMMUNOLOGY

T-cells targeting CLL B-Cells

Grant awarded in 2009

Abstract:

Recurrent CLL is unfortunately resistant to conventional therapies and new treatments are urgently needed. A promising new therapy is based on manipulating cells from the immune system to directly fight the CLL tumor cells. One major barrier to achieving therapeutic success is that the immune cells, while able to kill tumor cells, lack the necessary receptors to enable them to distinguish "good" (normal) cells from "bad" (cancerous) CLL cells.

This can now be solved using gene therapy to introduce a desired immunoreceptor into T-cells, a type of immune cell, to redirect specificity. In collaboration with Drs. Bill Wierda at MDACC and Tom Kipps at UCSD, we will develop a receptor that recognizes a molecule called ROR1 which is exclusively expressed on CLL cells. Once this novel immunoreceptor binds to ROR1 it should activate the T-cells to proliferate (make more ROR1-specific T-cells) and to lyse, or destroy, the CLL cell that it is bound to. In addition to work in the laboratory, we will also investigate the ability of the ROR1-specific T-cells to target a tumor in a mouse model. These preclinical data will lay the foundation for a clinical trial infusing ROR1-specific T-cells into patients with CLL.