Regen BioPharma, Inc. announced initiation of a series of phased experiments to begin the process of moving its CAR-T cell de-differentiation approach through pre-clinical validation. CAR-T cells are T cells (the lymphoid cells of the body that kill tumors) isolated from a cancer patient that have been modified by expressing a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) which is specific for the patient's tumor. While CAR-T cells are effective at treating certain lymphomas and leukemias, solid tumors such as liver, breast and colon remain resistant to CAR-T therapies for several reasons.

One reason is "T cell exhaustion", a term that means the T cells that are initially recruited to the tumor to kill it end up losing their effectiveness. The company believes that NR2F6, a checkpoint that puts the brakes on T cell activity, is a key player in the T Cell exhaustion phenomenon. Inhibiting NR2F6 is expected to prevent these T cells from becoming dysfunctional.

The Company has engaged the contract research organization, ProMab Biotechnologies, Inc. of Richmond, California, to embark on a series of experiments using the Company's proprietary shRNA NR2F6-inhibiting technology to validate this approach.