Our Technology
CAR-NK THERAPY
Ophelos Tx is an Australian pre-clinical and clinical immunotherapy company established to research and develop chimeric antigen receptor NK cell (CAR-NK) therapies to treat solid cancers.
CAR-NK therapy is a revolutionary new treatment option that uses a patient’s immune system to fight their cancer.
Ophelos Tx is developing CAR-NK and other adoptive cell therapies that can be used to treat solid cancers, are patient-specific and result in little, if any, off-cancer damage. Using its proprietary platforms, Ophelos Tx is also developing technologies to improve access to, and infiltration of, solid cancers, and to enhance CAR-NK cell manufacturing.
With research laboratories in Australia and Greece and cell therapy GMP facilities in Thailand, our company is globally poised to fight cancer. We develop and apply advanced autologous NK cell therapies that have the potential to deliver life-changing benefits to cancer patients and we are building a fully integrated, next-generation CAR NK company.
Advancing CAR NK cell therapy with…
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Biotech Innovations harnesses the power of Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) technology to engineer Natural Killer (NK) cells for cancer immunotherapy
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Our focus is on developing next-generation CAR NK cell therapies to address the limitations of current treatments and provide more effective options for patients
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With the potential for off-the-shelf therapy, our CAR NK cell treatments offer scalability and accessibility, aiming to reach a broader patient population
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With the potential for off-the-shelf therapy, our CAR NK cell treatments offer scalability and accessibility, aiming to reach a broader patient population
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We are committed to ongoing research, innovation, and collaboration with leading experts in the field to advance the frontier of cancer immunotherapy
In more detail…
Despite CAR T cell therapy’s significant success in treating hematological malignancies its effectiveness in treating solid tumors has been limited due to several challenges. These challenges include the difficulty in identifying a perfect target antigen in solid tumors, the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment, tumor trafficking and infiltration, and the heterogeneity of tumor antigens. Solid tumors also display tumor-associated antigen (TAA) heterogeneity between tumor types and patients, making it challenging to design a CAR-T/NK cell with the capability of recognizing an ideal target antigen. Additionally, solid tumors have a surrounding ecosystem that hinders the effectiveness of CAR T/NK cells. The combined tumor-associated antigen (TAA) heterogeneity and the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME), lead to T/NK cell exhaustion and limit the therapy’s success in solid cancers.
Our research is continuing development of counter strategies for CAR T cell therapy in solid tumors. This includes various engineering strategies, combination therapies, and innovative approaches to overcome the limitations of this treatment modality.
Some of the counter strategies being explored are:
Enhanced CAR NK-cell Engineering
Researchers are developing novel CAR designs that go beyond traditional architectures to enhance the safety, effectiveness, and applicability of CAR T/NK-cell therapy. This includes engineering strategies to improve CAR NK-cell function, such as increasing their ability to recognize target antigens, overcoming immunosuppressive signaling within the tumor microenvironment, and reducing toxicities.
Combination Therapies
The use of several therapies in combination to optimize the clinical outcomes of CAR NK-cell therapy for solid tumors is being investigated. This includes exploring the potential of combining CAR NK-cell therapy with other treatment modalities, such as vaccines, targeted therapies, and immune checkpoint blockades, to improve the therapeutic efficacy and overcome the hurdles associated with solid tumor treatment.
Improving Tumor Infiltration
Strategies to increase the infiltration of CAR NK cells into solid tumors are being developed to address the poor accessibility of the target antigen by typical CAR T/NK cells, which can lead to inefficient activation and expansion. These strategies aim to enhance the ability of CAR T/NK cells to home into tumor sites and overcome the barriers presented by the tumor microenvironment.
Reducing Toxicities
By using NK CAR therapy we mitigate the toxic effects associated with classical CAR T-cell therapy, such as cytokine release syndrome and neurotoxicity, by engineering CAR NK cells with improved safety profiles.
In summary, we believe our CAR NK cell therapy platform provides solutions in treating solid tumors due to the complexity of identifying a perfect target antigen, the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment, and the heterogeneity of tumor antigens. Our ongoing research and development is focused on developing solutions that overcome these limitations and improve the effectiveness of CAR T cell therapy for solid tumors.
CAR-NK-cells Brief
What are CAR-NK cells?
CAR-NK cells are natural killer (NK) cells transduced with the chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) protein. The CAR enables the NK cells to recognize and kill tumor cells via specific target antigens expressed on the surface of the malignant cells.
Why choose CAR-NK cells over CAR-T cells?
CAR-transduced NK cells (CAR-NK) exhibit several advantages over CAR-T cells, such as their safety in clinical use, the mechanisms by which they recognize cancer cells, and their abundance in clinical samples.
Golubovskaya V, Sienkiewicz J, Sun J, Zhang S, Huang Y, Zhou H, Harto H, Xu S, Berahovich R, Wu L. CAR-NK Cells Generated with mRNA-LNPs Kill Tumor Target Cells In Vitro and In Vivo. Int J Mol Sci. 2023 Aug 29;24(17):13364. doi: 10.3390/ijms241713364. PMID: 37686170; PMCID: PMC10487516.
