New Generation Switchable Living Drugs

‘Living’ drugs consist of fully functional cells that have been selected and often modified to treat cancer and a wide range of immune-mediated diseases..These therapies are called ‘living’ drugs not just because they are made from cells, but also because the protective response they elicit often can expand and persist for many months, if not longer, resulting in some cases in long-term cancer control. With any other type of drug (e.g. small molecules, antibodies, etc.), the treatment can be stopped in the case of severe toxicities. In contrast, ‘living’ drugs not only persist in patient for long time periods but even proliferate and differentiate. Thus, once administered, it is challenging to control their activity in the patient. There is an urgent need to develop advanced switch systems. To address this poor controllability of cell-based therapies, we propose to develop ON and OFF small molecule-regulated switch systems which can potentially be used to control cell function within the patient. By using small, orally deliverable molecules capable of regulating protein-protein interactions, cellular activity can be controlled in vivo in a spatially and temporally precise manner. Once available, we expect that they will open up new avenues for future cell-based therapy generations.