Scalable method to measure SARS-CoV-2 T cell immunity; plus therapies from NeoImmune, Exavir and more

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Duke-NUS Medical School scientists reported in Nature Biotechnology rapid, scalable PCR-based methods to measure T cell immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 from whole blood using CXCL10 mRNA as a proxy, since its expression is “strongly correlated with activation of antigen-specific T cells.”

NeoImmuneTech Inc. (KOSDAQ:950220) and collaborators at  Washington University in St. Louis revealed in Nature Communications a recombinant human IL-7 fused with hybrid Fc, known as efineptakin alfa, enhanced T cell expansion and persistence of CD19 and CD33 CAR T cells and prolonged survival of mice bearing CD19⁺ B cell lymphoma or CD33⁺ acute myelogenous leukemia. Efineptakin is in a Phase I trial in patients with large B cell lymphoma who have already received CD19 CAR T cell product Kymriah tisagenlecleucel from  Novartis AG (SIX:NOVN; NYSE:NVS)...