Picture taken October 2019
Last year, CIRM awarded $5.53 million to Rosa Bacchetta, M.D. at Stanford University to complete the work necessary to conduct a clinical trial for IPEX syndrome. This is a rare disease caused by mutations in the FOXP3 gene, which leaves people with the condition vulnerable to immune system attacks on their organs and tissues. These attacks can be devastating, even fatal.
Flash forward to the present day and the CIRM-funded treatment that Dr. Bacchetta has been working on has received both an orphan drug and a rare pediatric disease designation from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Orphan drug designation is a special status given by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for potential treatments of rare diseases that affect fewer than 200,000 in the U.S. This type of status can significantly help advance treatments for rare diseases by providing financial incentives in the form of tax credits towards the cost of clinical trials and prescription drug user fee waivers.
Under the FDA’s rare pediatric disease designation program, the FDA may grant priority review to Dr. Bacchetta if this treatment eventually receives FDA approval. The FDA defines a rare pediatric disease as a serious or life-threatening disease in which the serious or life-threatening manifestations primarily affect individuals aged from birth to 18 years and affects fewer than 200,000 people in the U.S.
“The designations granted by the FDA are a strong encouragement for our team to meet the goal of submitting the IND in 2021 and start the clinical trial for IPEX patients who are so much looking forward to new therapeutic options.” said Dr. Bacchetta.
But this begs the question, what exactly is IPEX syndrome? What is the approach that Dr. Bacchetta is working on? For those of you interested in the deeper scientific dive, we will elaborate on this complex disease and promising approach.
IPEX syndrome is a rare disease that primarily affects males and is caused by a genetic mutation that leads to lack of function of specialized immune cells called regulatory T cells (Tregs).
Without functional Tregs, a patient’s own immune cells attack the body’s own tissues and organs, a phenomenon known as autoimmunity. This affects many different areas such as the intestines, skin, and hormone-producing glands and can be fatal in early childhood.
Current treatment options include a bone marrow transplant and immune suppressing drugs. However, immune suppression is only partially effective and can cause severe side effects while bone marrow transplants are limited due to lack of matching donors.
Dr. Rosa Bacchetta and her team at Stanford will take a patient’s own blood in order to obtain CD4+ T cells. Then, using gene therapy, they will insert a normal version of the mutated gene into the CD4+ T cells, allowing them to function like normal Treg cells. These Treg-like cells would then be reintroduced back into the patient, hopefully creating an IPEX-free blood supply and resolving the autoimmunity.
Furthermore, if successful, this treatment could be adapted for treatment of other, more common, autoimmune conditions where Treg cells are the underlying problem.
The same day that CIRM approved funding for this approach, Taylor Lookofsky, a young man with IPEX syndrome, talked about the impact the condition has had on his life.
It’s a powerful reminder that syndromes like this, because they affect a small number of people, are often overlooked and have few resources devoted to finding new treatments and cures. After hearing Taylor’s story, you come to appreciate his courage and determination, and why the funding CIRM provides is so important in helping researchers like Dr. Bacchetta find therapies to help people like Taylor.
The full transcript of his talk can be accessed on a previous blog post.
The Stem Cellar 