A Pediatric ITP Risk Model and Targeting CD2 with CAR T-cell therapies

In this week's episode, Blood editor Dr. Laura Michaelis interviews Drs. Kirsty Hillier and Marco Ruella on their latest articles published in Blood. For "Predicting Development of Pediatric Chronic Immune Thrombocytopenia at Disease Onset Using a Statistical Risk Model", Dr. Hillier shares the potential benefits of incorporating this new model to enhance the care of the 1 in 4 patients who develop chronic ITP. As an alternative to current guidelines which advise providers to "wait and see", this online model determines patients who are at risk for chronic ITP, allowing for providers to make informed decisions on their continued care. In "Harnessing the CD2 axis to broaden and enhance the efficacy of CAR T-cell therapies", Dr. Ruella explains how the treatment of T-cell neoplasms is limited by a lack of discriminating T-cell antigens that allow for effective antitumor responses while preventing CAR T-cell fratricide. The team found that CD2 was a viable target, especially combined with a novel PD-1:CD2 switch receptor to remedy dysfunction caused by CD2 deletion.