Introduced in 2017, FasTCAR is Gracell’s revolutionary next-day autologous CAR-T cell manufacturing platform. FasTCAR is designed to lead the next generation of therapy for cancer and autoimmune diseases, and improve outcomes for patients by enhancing effect, reducing costs, and enabling more patients to access critical CAR-T treatment. FasTCAR drastically shortens cell production from weeks to overnight, potentially reducing patient wait times and probability for their disease to progress. Furthermore, FasTCAR T-cells appear younger than traditional CAR-T cells, making them more proliferative and effective at killing cancer cells. In 2022 and 2023, FasTCAR was named the winner of the Biotech Innovation category of the 2022 Fierce Life Sciences Innovation Awards and the Overall Immunology Solution of 2023 by BioTech Breakthrough Awards, for its ability to address major industry obstacles.
To reduce host-versus-graft rejection (HvG), we engineer T cells to express a CAR that specifically targets a patient’s own T and natural killer (NK) cells (alloreactive killer cells) that would otherwise be directed against the foreign, or allogeneic, CAR-T cells, resulting in rejection by the patient without affecting the recovery of other immune cell compartments during treatment. This feature allows our allogeneic cell therapies to survive in a patient’s immune system without the need for combination treatment with anti-CD52 antibodies that may leave that patient at risk for infection.
To reduce the possibility of graft-versus-host disease GvHD from allogeneic T cells, we utilize CRISPR/Cas9 to disrupt the T cell receptor alpha constant (TRAC) locus to eliminate surface expression of the TCR complex of our TruUCAR product candidates. Furthermore, to eliminate potential fratricide (self-killing of CAR-T cells during the production process), we utilize CRISPR/Cas9 to disrupt CD7, a pan T and NK marker on the CAR-T cells.
Since TruUCAR is modular, alternative CAR constructs targeted against different antigens can be applied to TruUCAR to achieve similar therapeutic effects. For example, the anti-HvG and anti-GvHD functions can be carried out by a dual CAR design or a single CAR design for dual functions.
In the case of a dual CAR design, one CAR serves a “defensive” purpose, targeting the patient’s own alloreactive killer T cells and NK cells while the second CAR serves an “attack” purpose, targeting tumor antigen to eradicate tumor cells. In the case of a single CAR design, the CAR carries out dual functions, targeting both alloreactive killer T cells and NK cells, as well as T cancer cells. An enhancer molecule is embedded in the basic construct of TruUCAR to enhance proliferation of TruUCAR T cells.