Stefanie Bailey, PhD, on the Role of Interferon-γ in CAR T-Cell Therapy

“Blockade of interferon gamma did rescue a patient from cytokine release syndrome that was resistant to current approaches in the clinic. Most importantly, it didn't affect the CAR T-cell efficacy. So ,we do think that this system has potential. I is something that we're very excited about, and we're hoping we'll have a lot of traction in the clinic.”

Researchers have elucidated the role of interferon-γ (IFNg) in innate immune reactions and in response to chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) therapy. While IFNg is required in the mechanism of CAR T-cell therapy in solid tumors, it is not required for hematologic malignancies and blocking IFNg may decrease toxicities in patients treated with CAR T-cell therapy.

Stefanie Bailey, PhD, research fellow, Harvard Medical School, presented these findings at the Onco Cell Therapy Summit (OCTS) USA 2022, held June 29-30 in Boston, Massachusetts. CGTLive spoke with Bailey to learn more about the potential of blocking IFNg to reduce toxicities with CAR T-cell therapy. She also discussed a case study in which blocking IFNg rescued a patient with cytokine release syndrome.

REFERENCE

Bailey SR. Challenging dogmas: Re-thinking IFNg in CAR-T therapy. Presented at: OCTS USA 2022, June 29-30, Boston, MA.