Immunovative Therapies, Ltd.'s "Mirror EffectTM" - A Unique Concept Cancer Therapy

Dr. Michael Har-Noy, founder and CEO of Immunovative Therapies, Ltd., outlines the “Mirror Effect™” as a manipulation of the immune system that solves the problem of separating the beneficial graft versus tumor (GVT) response from the lethal graft versus host disease (GVHD) of bone marrow transplant (BMT) procedures.  Separating these mechanisms has long been considered the “holy grail” of cancer immunotherapy, and Immunovative Therapies, Ltd. appears to have a viable solution.

Immunovative Therapies, Ltd. attacked this problem by formulating a T-cell infusion that would “mirror” the function of the transplanted immune system and allow it to be controlled by the patient’s own immunity.  Immunovative Therapies, Ltd. has termed this idea the “Mirror Effect™” and indicates it was developed to create the same anti-cancer mechanism that has been curative in allogeneic bone marrow transplant patients but without lethal complications.

In the “Mirror Effect™”, the course of the intimately related GVT and GVHD effects arising from the administered graft are reversed or “mirrored” so that they arise from the host instead, thus mediating a host versus tumor (HVT) reaction linked to the benign host versus graft (HVG) rejection.  At Immunovative Therapies, Ltd., to create the “Mirror Effect™”, T-cells from a normal donor are administered to a patient and instead of these cells initiating a GVT response, they stimulate the patient's own immunity to attack the tumor (HVT effect) and create a very inflammatory environment which disables tumor immune-avoidance capability.

According to Immunovative Therapies, Ltd., since the HVT response has to be linked to a HVG rejection, the patient in these cases is not pre-treated by immunosuppressive drugs and thus has an intact immune response that has the ability to reject the foreign donor T-cells.  Additionally, because graft rejection (HVG) is desired, it is preferable that the donor cells be mismatched to the patient.  Immunovative Therapies, Ltd. indicates that this is a critical advancement over allogeneic BMT procedures, where only one third of the patients have a related donor that is acceptable for the procedure. 

Immunovative Therapies, Ltd.’s  “Mirror Effect^TM” thus involves administration of deliberately mismatched donor cells into a cancer patient who has not had any prior chemotherapy.  These allogeneic cells from the donor then cause an immune reaction in the patient and are rejected.  This HVG mechanism is the “mirror” of the deadly GVHD response but is nontoxic. The HVG rejection then precipitates host-mediated killing of tumor cells (HVT), which is the “mirror” of the GVT reaction.  Immunovative Therapies, Ltd.’s “Mirror Effect^TM” effect therefore imitates the positive GVT effect of allogeneic BMT avoiding the often fatal GVHD reaction.

The “Mirror Effect^TM” created by Immunovative Therapies, Ltd. may create an entirely new field of cancer therapy. 

Source: http://immunovative.co.il/mirrorEffect.php