Cynata Therapeutics finalises Cymerus patent to treat adverse reactions to cancer immunotherapy

Cynata Therapeutics (ASX: CYP) has wrapped up an IP Australia patent application for therapeutic use of its Cymerus stem cell technology in treating adverse reactions from chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) immunotherapy.

The Australian stem cell and regenerative medicine company said it had completed the filing of the patent application with the Australian Government intellectual property agency.

Cynata had filed an initial provisional patent application in April 2017.

Cynata today also revealed initial data from preclinical study at the University of Massachusetts Amherst had demonstrated Cymerus mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) ameliorated the effects of cytokine-release syndrome and related adverse reactions to CAR-T therapy.

In CAR-T therapy, a patient’s T cells, a type of white blood cell, are changed in a laboratory so they will bind to cancer cells and kill them.

While the adoptive cell immunotherapy can be very effective, particularly with leukaemia and lymphoma, when patients experience toxicity and other adverse effects, the results can be fatal.

CAR-T therapy can lead to unpredictable adverse reactions, such as cytokine release syndrome, which may limit the uptake of the treatment in a patient.

Cynata product development vice-president Kilian Kelly said the company’s Cymerus MSCs could play a role in managing negative reactions to CAR-T treatments.

“Initial preclinical data suggest our Cymerus mesenchymal stem cells may play an important role in managing the toxic side effects of CAR-T therapy, which, in turn, could substantially increase its utility and improve patient outcomes,” he said.

Dr Kelly said the company would continue to evaluate the benefits of its stem cells “in association with CAR-T treatment, in ongoing preclinical studies”.

Cymerus stem cell technology

Cynata’s proprietary Cymerus technology addresses a critical shortcoming in existing methods of production of MSCs for therapeutic use — the ability to achieve economic manufacture at commercial scale.

Cymerus uses induced pluripotent stem cells to produce a mesenchymoangioblast MSC precursor. As a result of this advantage, Cymerus can provide an off-the-shelf stem cell platform for therapeutic product use.

In January, Cynata announced the platform would be evaluated with partner Celularity’s cell therapy assets.

Cynata securities were up 0.72% to A$1.40 by mid-afternoon.