Regen BioPharma, Inc. has recently discussed the use of CAR-T therapies in cancer treatment and its development of a novel approach to creating CAR-T cells that can potentially be used to treat solid tumors. The tumor microenvironment contains molecules and cells which can suppress T cells and prevent them from attacking and killing the tumor. "T cell exhaustion" is a term that describes T cells that are initially recruited to a tumor to kill it but end up rapidly losing their effectiveness.

Eventually the tumor is surrounded by T cells that are exhausted and ineffective. The company has focused on NR2F6, an immune checkpoint which has been convincingly shown to be a very important transcription factor that keeps T cells in check1-4. When this transcription factor is blocked, T cells become very active and can kill tumors much more effectively. The company has coupled its proprietary shRNA technology, which inhibits NR2F6, with existing CAR-T cell technology to create a potentially durable CAR-T cell which cannot be exhausted by the solid tumor microenvironment.

The company calls this novel CAR-T cell DuraCAR.