Development of Regulatory T-Cells for Treatment of Autoimmune Disease
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Investigator: Jeffrey Bluestone, PhD
Sponsor: Becton, Dickinson, and Company
Location(s): United States
Description
NeoStem announced its collaboration with the University of California, San Francisco and the laboratories of Jeffrey Bluestone, PhD, and Qizhi Tang, PhD on the development of Tregs for the treatment of type 1 diabetes (“T1D”), steroid resistant asthma, and organ transplant rejection. This collaboration advances NeoStem’s Treg program towards a clinical Phase 2 trial that will evaluate the efficacy of autologous Tregs in T1D and includes research efforts to develop the next generation of Treg products for therapeutic use. The team will collaborate on:
- manufacturing a Treg product consisting of polyclonally expanded Tregs for the planned Phase 2 trial to treat patients newly diagnosed with T1D,
- researching allo-specific Tregs for organ transplant tolerance
- sponsoring a potential clinical study on the use of Tregs for the treatment of steroid resistant asthma.
Therapies using regulatory T cells, or “Tregs” represent a novel approach to restoring balance in the immune system. By enhancing Treg cell number and function to inhibit pathogenic immune responses, Treg therapies offer the potential to treat many autoimmune diseases.