WEHI team engineers T cells that keep working under immunosuppression
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A clinical team at WEHI has built a prime editing platform that makes therapeutic T cells tolerant of the immunosuppressant tacrolimus while leaving them sensitive to cyclosporin. In cells from patients with SPTCL-HLH, the researchers corrected disease-causing mutations and added the tacrolimus-tolerance edits in one workflow. They then applied the platform to virus-specific T cells and CAR T cells, both of which retained their function under immunosuppression. The approach, published in Blood (DOI: 10.1182/blood.2026033156), could let clinicians dose immunosuppressants to control graft-versus-host or autoimmune complications without killing the therapeutic cells. The team is now advancing the platform toward a first-in-human trial; patient dosing, regulatory review and validation in additional indications are still ahead.
Written by a model from the reports · updated 3 hours ago
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- Medical XpressPickClinician-led approach could give doctors a control dial for cell therapies
A WEHI clinical team developed a prime editing platform that makes therapeutic T cells tolerant to tacrolimus while remaining sensitive to cyclosporin. In cells from SPTCL-HLH patients, the researchers corrected disease-causing mutations and added the tacrolimus tolerance edit; they then applied the platform to virus-specific T cells and CAR T cells, and edited cells retained function under immunosuppression. The team is advancing toward a first-in-human trial; the work is published in Blood, DOI: 10.1182/blood.2026033156.
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