Arovella Therapeutics Ltd. is heading toward the clinic with its lead product, ALA-101, which consists of a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) targeting CD19 and invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells.

Cell and gene therapy companies are the beneficiaries of positive changes along the regulatory path that the U.S. FDA is paving for them, according to a panel of executives who spoke at the BioFuture 2024 conference in New York.

Cell and gene therapy companies are the beneficiaries of positive changes along the regulatory path that the U.S. FDA is paving for them, according to a panel of executives who spoke at the BioFuture 2024 conference in New York. The agency is trying to set up cell and gene companies for success and that’s a very different agency than what it was years ago, said Paul Bresge, CEO of Ray Therapeutics Inc.

Acepodia Inc.’s antibody cell conjugation platform could change the way CAR T-cell therapies are manufactured, clearing the way for an off-the-shelf model to treat numerous cancers that is safer and cheaper than current CAR Ts, Acepodia CEO Sonny Hsiao told BioWorld.

It is approved as a food additive. But it now appears that sucralose can dampen T-cell-mediated immune responses, suggesting it could be a means of treating T-cell-dependent autoimmune disorders. While stressing (repeatedly) that they were studying intakes well above normal, at high but achievable doses sucralose has an unexpected effect on T-cell responses and functions in autoimmune, infection and tumor models, researchers at The Francis Crick Institute, London, reported in Nature March 15, 2023.

A study in a mouse model of tau protein build-up in the brain, similar to that seen in later stage Alzheimer’s disease (AD), shows that changes to the microbiome in these animals can impact the degree and progression of neurodegeneration observed. As reported in the Jan. 12, 2023, study published in Science, the researchers found that mice that were germ free and those given antibiotics to change their gut microbiome early in life had significant reductions in brain atrophy compared with those with a standard microbiome.

Researchers have identified a link between amyloid plaques and dysfunctional neuronal conduction in animal models of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Their study, which was published in the Dec. 1, 2022, issue of Nature, suggests new ways to think about AD, as well as badly needed potential alternatives to plaque removal to fight the disease.