# Dendritic cell therapy for GvHD

> **NIH NIH R41** · HASENTECH, INC. · 2024 · $299,989

## Abstract

Abstract.
Hematologic malignancies are often treated with allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell
transplantation (HSCT). However, HSCT is complicated by graft-vs-host disease (GvHD), a
severe, potentially lethal complication initiated when donor alloreactive T cells attack host cells
and organs. Despite the administration of prophylactic regimens for aGVHD as standard pre-
transplantation therapy, up to 60% of these patients develop aGVHD of grade II or higher, and
require additional immunosuppressive intervention. Thus, there is an urgent need to improve
pre-transplantation therapies to prevent aGVHD. We identified a probiotic exopolysaccharide
(EPS) that induces tolerogenic dendritic cells (DCs) that inhibit T cell proliferation, and we
found that EPS-treated human DCs (EPS-DCs) both inhibited T cell proliferation in mixed
lymphocyte reactions, and significantly increased survival of humanized NSG-HLA-A2 mice
after transplantation with human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (hPBMC). The data
indicate that a cell-based therapy using EPS-DCs can mitigate aGvHD, and the goal of this Phase
I R41 grant is to determine the in vivo fate of EPS-DCs and optimize protection from GvHD by
these EPS-DCs; optimize treatment to maximize the graft vs leukemia response; and establish
DC and T cell biomarkers of EPS-mediated suppression of GvHD. These studies will provide a
novel cell-based therapy for preventing GvHD in patients receiving HSCT. This cell therapy will
be translatable to humans because large numbers of EPS-DCs can be generated and frozen in
bulk and used as “off the shelf” treatment, for all patients, independent of MHC types.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10918512
- **Project number:** 1R41AI179340-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** HASENTECH, INC.
- **Principal Investigator:** Katherine L. Knight
- **Activity code:** R41 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $299,989
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-05-07 → 2026-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10918512

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10918512, Dendritic cell therapy for GvHD (1R41AI179340-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10918512. Licensed CC0.

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