Shirwan Haval
Professor
University of Louisville
USA
Title: ProtExâ„¢ technology as an effective means of engineering bone marrow cells with immunoregulatory molecules for the establishment of mixed hematopoietic chimerism
Biography
Biography: Shirwan Haval
Abstract
Allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT) has the potential to cure a series of inherited and acquired hematological disorders. The routine application of allogeneic BMT as a therapeutic intervention in the clinic, however, is complicated by nonmyeloablative conditioning of the recipient, graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), and lack of engraftment. Although elimination of T cells from the donor BM inoculum is effective in curtailing GVHD, it results in compromised engraftment. Thus, strategies targeting specific and effective elimination of only the pathogenic T cells may have important implications for routine application of BMT to the clinic. We have developed a novel approach, designated as ProtEx™, to engineer bone marrow cells with an exogenous protein immunoregulatory protein, SA-FasL, and tested the efficacy of the engineered cells to engraft in allogeneic recipients. Our results demonstrate the robust efficacy of this approach to establish mixed hematopoietic chimerism under nonmyeloablative conditioning and without complication of GVHD.
