Publications by authors named "I Kastankova"

Background: The non-viral production of CAR-T cells through electroporation of transposon DNA plasmids is an alternative approach to lentiviral/retroviral methods. This method is particularly suitable for early-phase clinical trials involving novel types of CAR-T cells. The primary disadvantage of non-viral methods is the lower production efficiency compared to viral-based methods, which becomes a limiting factor for CAR-T production, especially in chemotherapy-pretreated lymphopenic patients.

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Tisagenlecleucel (tisa-cel) is a CD19specific CAR-T cell product approved for the treatment of relapsed/refractory (r/r) DLBCL or B-ALL. We have followed a group of patients diagnosed with childhood B-ALL ( = 5), adult B-ALL ( = 2), and DLBCL ( = 25) who were treated with tisa-cel under non-clinical trial conditions. The goal was to determine how the intensive pretreatment of patients affects the produced CAR-T cells, their expansion, and the outcome of the therapy.

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The piggyBac transposon system provides a non-viral alternative for cost-efficient and simple chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell production. The generation of clinical-grade CAR T cells requires strict adherence to current good manufacturing practice (cGMP) standards. Unfortunately, the high costs of commonly used lentiviral or retroviral vectors limit the manufacturing of clinical-grade CAR T cells in many non-commercial academic institutions.

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As the extent of centrosome abnormalities in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) correlates with disease stage and karyotype alterations, abnormal expression of genes encoding centrosomal proteins may be an early prognostic marker of disease progression. In the present study, we showed that in comparison with healthy controls, the expression of four centrosomal genes (AURKA, HMMR, PLK1 and ESPL1) in the peripheral blood of CML patients was significantly enhanced at diagnosis and decreased to the basal level in most patients treated with imatinib mesylate for three months. In the remaining patients (17%), this decrease was delayed and was associated with worse overall survival.

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