Clinical Trial

Disease: Transfusion-Dependent Beta-Thalassemia, TDT, (NCT03432364)

Disease info:

Beta thalassemia is a group of blood disorders characterised by a reduction in the production of haemoglobin. Haemoglobin is the iron-containing protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen to cells throughout the body.

Haemoglobin is encoded by genes that encode the building blocks of the haemoglobin protein. Mutations in these genes can produce abnormal haemoglobins leading to a family of conditions termed "haemoglobinopathies". Abnormal haemoglobin appears in one of three basic circumstances:

  1. Structural defects in the haemoglobin molecule. Alterations in the gene for one of the two haemoglobin subunit chains, alpha (a) or beta (b), are called mutations. Often, mutations change a single amino acid building block in the subunit. Most commonly the change is innocuous, perturbing neither the structure nor function of the haemoglobin molecule. Occasionally, alteration of a single amino acid dramatically disturbs the behaviour of the haemoglobin molecule and produces a disease state. Sickle haemoglobin exemplifies this phenomenon.
  2. Diminished production of one of the two subunits of the haemoglobin molecule. Mutations that produce this condition are termed "thalassemias." Equal numbers of haemoglobin alpha and beta chains are necessary for normal function. Haemoglobin chain imbalance damages and destroys red cells thereby producing anaemia. Although there is a dearth of the affected haemoglobin subunit, with most thalassemias the few subunits synthesised are structurally normal.
  3. Abnormal associations of otherwise normal subunits. A single subunit of the alpha chain (from the a-globin locus) and a single subunit from the b-globin locus combine to produce a normal haemoglobin dimer. With severe a-thalassemia, the b-globin subunits begin to associate into groups of four (tetramers) due to the paucity of potential a-chain partners. These tetramers of b-globin subunits are functionally inactive and do not transport oxygen. No comparable tetramers of alpha globin subunits form with severe beta-thalassemia. Alpha subunits are rapidly degraded in the absence of a partner from the beta-globin gene cluster (gamma, delta, beta globin subunits).

In individuals suffering from beta-thalassemia, low levels of haemoglobin lead to a lack of oxygen in many parts of the body. People with beta-thalassemia are at an increased risk of developing abnormal blood clots.

Beta-thalassemia is classified into two types depending on symptom severity. Transfusion-dependent thalassemia, also known as thalassemia major, is the more severe, while thalassemia intermedia is less severe-

Frequency:
Annually, approximately 1 in 100,000 cases are diagnosed worldwide. Beta-thalassaemia occurs most frequently in people from Mediterranean countries, North Africa, the Middle East, India, China and South East Asia.
Official title:
A Phase 1/2, Open-label, Single-arm Study to Assess the Safety, Tolerability, and Efficacy of ST-400 Autologous Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant for Treatment of Transfusion-Dependent Beta-thalassemia (TDT)
Who:
Partners:
Locations:

United States, California

University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States, 90095-1678

UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland, Oakland, California, United States, 94609

 

United States, Georgia

Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia, United States, 30322

 

United States, Massachusetts

Dana-Farber Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02116

 

United States, Minnesota

University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, 55455

 

United States, Pennsylvania

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, 19104

Study start:
Mar. 29, 2018
Enrollment:
5 participants
Gene editing method:
ZFN-Zinc Finger Nucleases
Type of edit:
Gene enhancement
Gene:
BAF chromatin remodelling complex subunit (BCL11A)
Delivery method:
Electroporation and adeno-associated virus (AAV) - Ex-vivo
IndicatorIndicator
IND Enabling Pre-clinical
Phase I Safety
Phase II Safety and Dosing
Phase III Safety and Efficacy

Status: Completed

Description

This is a single-arm, multi-site, single-dose, Phase 1/2 study to assess ST-400 in 6 subjects with transfusion-dependent β-thalassemia (TDT) who are ≥18 and ≤40 years of age. ST-400 is a type of investigational therapy that consists of gene edited cells. ST-400 is composed of the patient's own blood stem cells which are genetically modified in the laboratory using Sangamo's zinc finger nuclease (ZFN) technology to disrupt a precise and specific sequence of the enhancer of the BCL11A gene (which normally suppresses fetal hemoglobin production in erythrocytes). This process is intended to boost fetal hemoglobin (HbF), which can substitute for reduced or absent adult (defective) hemoglobin. ST-400 is then infused back into the patient after receiving conditioning chemotherapy to make room for the new cells in the bone marrow, with the aim of producing new erythrocytes with increased amounts of HbF. The primary objective is to understand safety and tolerability of ST-400, and secondary objectives are to assess the effects on HbF levels and transfusion requirements.

ST-400 Investigational product is composed of autologous CD34+ hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells that are genetically modified ex vivo at the erythroid-specific enhancer of the BCL11A gene

Intervention: Genetic: ST-400 Investigational product

Last updated: Dec. 28, 2023
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