Dec. 3 at 6:50 PM
$BCTX One has to dig deep and watch carefully, to find clues.
Previous publications detailed the cytokines and co-stimulatory molecules to be expressed in the Bria-OTS+ platform. Among them was 4-1BBL (to increase T-cell activation and survival). More recent publications not only omit this protein, but they have added CD40L to later cell lines (melanoma and NSCLC).
I see two reasons for this. For one, 4-1BBL takes up a lot of vector space. One can only cram so many expressions into the "cargo" space. It also takes additional engineering to keep it on the cell and getting uniform expressions. Complicates GMP manufacturing. Thus, eliminating this expression creates room for other, less burdensome (but equally effective) expressions like CD40L.
On the other hand, while 4-1BBL would boost the T-cells response mediated through class I HLA's, the CD40L would boost dendritic cell activity, and be primarily mediated through class II HLA's.
Just lightening the load, or a shift in priorities?
