Kyverna Therapeutics, Inc. announced the signature of a collaboration agreement with Stanford University to allow the use of KYV-101, an investigational, anti-CD19 CAR T-cell therapy in an open label, phase 1 investigator-initiated trial (IIT) in nine to twelve adult subjects with non-relapsing and progressive forms of multiple sclerosis. Each participant will receive a single dose of KYV-101. A parallel agreement will support the development of correlative studies thoroughly investigating disease biology upon KYV-101 infusion in MS patients, including the definition of predictors of response and the potential for immune reset.

The investigator-initiated trial adds to the Kyverna-sponsored KYSA-7 Phase 2 study in MS and other sponsored KYSA trials in other rheumatological and neurological autoimmune disorders. CAR T-cell therapy involves modifying a patient's T cells to recognize and remove B cells in the patient's body. Kyverna's CD19 CAR T-cell therapy, KYV-101, specifically targets CD19, a protein expressed on the surface of B cells, which are involved in various types of autoimmune diseases.

Kyverna plans to continue to explore additional indications for KYV-101 and develop a robust pipeline of promising product candidate immunotherapies aimed at addressing unmet medical needs in autoimmune diseases.