Our TCR-T cell therapy harnesses the patient’s own immune system to fight against viral infections and related cancers.
We have developed the capability to engineer Hepatitis B virus (HBV)-specific T cells that can recognize HBV-expressing tumor cells and achieve targeted killing.HBV is the major etiologic agent for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) development, accounting for at least 50% cases of HCC worldwide and at least 80% of cases in Asia. HBV predisposes to the development of HCC by causing chronic inflammation and genome destabilization after DNA integration into the genome of hepatocytes.
More than 80% of HBV-related HCC tumors have detectable HBV-DNA integration. Epitopes encoded by these integrated HBV-DNA can be assembled with major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules on cell surfaces and serve as ideal targets for T cells.
LioCyx-M is produced following current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) compliant principles in less than 2 weeks for clinical use. The general steps are as follows:
1. The patient undergoes leukapheresis to isolate white blood cells.
2. T cells from the patient are expanded and activated in Lion TCR’s GMP cell production facility.
3. Genetic material encoding our virus- or cancer-targeting TCR are introduced into the activated T cells by or electroporation.
4. The patient’s T cells now express the relevant TCR that target virus-infected or virus-related cancer cells.
5. Following phenotypic and functional validation, the TCR engineered T cells are infused back to the patient.
Lion TCR clinched the "Most Innovative Enterprise of the Year" Award at the 2023 Cell and Gene Therapy Asia Industry Star Awards.
Immunosuppressive Drug Resistant Armored TCR T cells for immune-therapy of HCC in liver transplant patients
Hafezi et al. Hepatology (2020)
Use of Expression Profiles of HBV-DNA Integrated Into Genomes of Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cells to Select T Cells for Immunotherapy
Tan AT et al. Gastroenterology (2019)
Nonlytic Lymphocytes Engineered to Express Virus-Specific T-Cell Receptors Limit HBV Infection by Activating APOBEC3
Koh S et al. Gastroenterology (2018)
Our library of TCRs recognizes viral peptides expressed on MHC Class I restricted for the Asian population.
We are actively extending our proprietary TCR therapy platform to target more viruses, particularly those prevalent in Asia, for example, HBV, EBV and CMV.
