CASPALLO: Allodepleted T Cells Transduced With Inducible Caspase 9 Suicide Gene

NCT00710892 · Status: ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING · Phase: PHASE1 · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 10

Last updated 2025-07-11

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Patients are being asked to participate in this study because they will be receiving a stem cell transplant as treatment for their disease. As part of the stem cell transplant, they will be given very strong doses of chemotherapy, which will kill off all their existing stem cells. Stem cells are created in the bone marrow. They grow into different types of blood cells that we need, including red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets.

We have identified a close relative of the patients whose stem cells are not a perfect match for the patient, but can be used. This type of transplant is called "allogeneic", meaning that the cells come from a donor. With this type of donor who is not a perfect match, there is typically an increased risk of developing graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) and a longer delay in the recovery of the immune system.

GvHD is a serious and sometimes fatal side effect of stem cell transplant. GvHD occurs when the new donor cells recognize that the body tissues of the patient are different from those of the donor.

In the laboratory, we have seen that cells made to carry a gene called iCasp9 can be killed when they encounter a specific drug called AP1903. To get the iCasp9 into the T cells, we insert it using a virus called a retrovirus that has been made for this study. The drug (AP1903) that will be used to "activate" the iCasp9 is an experimental drug that has been tested in a study in normal donors, with no bad side effects. We hope we can use this drug to kill the T cells. Other drugs that kill or damage T cells have helped GvHD in many studies. However we do not yet know whether AP1903 will kill T cells in humans, even though it has worked in our experimental studies on human cells in animals. Nor do we know whether killing the T cells will help the GvHD. Because of this uncertainty, patients who develop significant GvHD will also receive standard therapy for this complication, in addition to the experimental drug. We hope that having this safety switch in the T cells will let us give higher doses of T cells that will make the immune system recover faster. These specially treated "suicide gene" T cells are an investigational product not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Conditions

Interventions

BIOLOGICAL

Allodepleted T Cells

Dose Level 1 = 1 x 10e6 T cells/kg; Dose Level 2 = 3 x 10e6 T cells/kg; Dose Level 3 = 1 x 10e7 T cells/kg. Patients may be enrolled at the next dose level of T cells when all patients at the previous dose level have reached Day 42 post-T cell infusion without unacceptable toxicity.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • The Methodist Hospital Research Institute

    collaborator OTHER
  • Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Baylor College of Medicine

    collaborator OTHER
  • Baylor College of Medicine

    lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

  • Malcolm K Brenner, MD · Baylor College of Medicine

Study Design

Allocation
NA
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Model
SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Max Age
65 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2008-12-31
Primary Completion
2011-11-30
Completion
2026-07-31
FDA Drug
Yes

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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Entities

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT00710892 on ClinicalTrials.gov