Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell (CAR-T) Therapy:
The first CAR-T cell treatment was undertaken at ACTREC at Tata Hospital in Mumbai, with funding from the Department of Biotechnology.
Highlights:
♦ At June 2021, the first CAR-T cell therapy was performed at the ACTREC, Tata Memorial Centre in Mumbai`s Bone Marrow Transplant Unit.
♦ This is a gene treatment that is being tested in a pilot clinical trial for the first time in India. IIT Bombay and Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai conducted the trial, which was partially funded by the BIRAC-PACE initiative.
♦ The National Biopharma Mission-BIRAC of the Indian government has given the team 19.15 crore to conduct a first-in-human phase-1/2 clinical study using CAR-T cells.
About Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell Therapy:
♦ It is a treatment in which a patient`s T cells (a type of immune system cell) are genetically modified to kill cancer cells in the laboratory.
♦ T cells are taken from the blood of the patient. The gene for an unique receptor that attaches to a specific protein on the patient`s cancer cells is then introduced to the T cells in the laboratory.
♦ A chimeric antigen receptor is the name given to this one-of-a-kind receptor (CAR). In the laboratory, a huge number of CAR T cells are generated before being administered into the patient.
♦ It`s used to treat several forms of blood cancers, and it`s also being studied for other cancers.
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