Optimizing Blood Stem Cell Transplants Through Cellular Engineering

Haematopoietic stem cell transplants (HSCT) are used in the treatment of blood cancers, autoimmune diseases, and metabolic disorders. Over 1.5 million transplants have been performed around the world thus far. In an attempt to enhance the efficacy of the cells used for transplantation, efforts are underway to use cellular engineering to increase cell numbers through: (1) the expansion of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPC); (2) cellular subset selection to remove cells that cause graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), while adding back cells, which can mediate anti-tumor and anti-viral immunity; (3) the use of immune regulatory cells, such as mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) and regulatory T cells (Tregs) to control GvHD; (4) the use of immune effector cells to mount immunological control of tumor cells before, after, or independent of blood stem cell transplants.