ApoGraft for the Prevention of Acute Graft Versus Host Disease in Haploidentical Hematopoietic Cell Transplant Recipients
Status:
Recruiting
Trial end date:
2023-12-31
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Finding a donor remains a challenge for patients in need of an urgent hematopoietic stem cell
transplantation (HSCT). The ability to obtain half matched stem cells from any family member
represents a significant breakthrough in the field. Haploidentical haplo-HSCT is
characterized by the nearly uniform and immediate availability of a donor and the
availability of the donor for post-transplant cellular immunotherapy. However, haplo-HSCT has
a high risk of Graft versus Host Disease (GvHD) and poor immune reconstitution when GvHD is
prevented by all existing methods of vigorous ex vivo or in vivo T-cell depletion. Different
treatment approaches are currently being explored to mitigate complications such as graft
rejection, severe GvHD, and prolonged immune suppression. Novel experimental utilization of T
regulatory cells, alloreactive natural killer (NK) cells, and other T cell subsets hold great
promise. Cellect Biotherapeutics' platform technology, ApoGraft, is based on the findings
that GvHD can be prevented by Fas receptor mediated selective depletion of T cell subsets, ex
vivo. The investigators hypothesize that the use of ApoGrafts for haplo-HSCT will be safe,
and reduce rates of GVHD without affecting Graft-versus-Leukemia (GvL).