CAR-T cell therapy
- The first CAR-T cell therapy (a type of gene therapy) was done at the Bone Marrow Transplant unit at ACTREC, Tata Memorial Center in Mumbai.
- The CAR-T cells were designed and manufactured at the Bioscience and Bioengineering (BSBE) department of IIT Bombay.
- This work is partly supported by the BIRAC-PACE scheme.
- This is a “first in India” gene therapy in early phase pilot clinical trial and the dedicated efforts and excellent collaboration between IIT Bombay and Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai.
- The central government’s National Biopharma Mission-BIRAC has approved 19.15 Cr to the team for conducting a first-in-human phase-1/2 clinical trial of the CAR-T cells.
- The Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy has emerged as a breakthrough in cancer treatment.
- Clinical trials conducted globally have shown promising results in end-stage patients, especially in patients suffering from Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia.
- Each patient's CAR-T cell therapy costs 3-4 crore (INR).
Working of CAR-T therapy
- Blood is taken from the patient & Immune "T" cells are filtered from it.
- A harmless virus used to deliver genes into 'T' cells modifies them to recognise and target cancer cells
- Then these modified cells are duplicated in the lab.
- Once its duplicates the modified CAR-T cells are injected back into the patient.