Mobilised peripheral blood cells (Cellect Biotechnology)

Finding a donor remains a challenge for patients in need of an urgent hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). The ability to obtain half matched stem cells from any family member represents a significant breakthrough in the field. Haploidentical haplo-HSCT is characterized by the nearly uniform and immediate availability of a donor and the availability of the donor for post-transplant cellular immunotherapy. However, haplo-HSCT has a high risk of Graft versus Host Disease (GvHD) and poor immune reconstitution when GvHD is prevented by all existing methods of vigorous ex vivo or in vivo T-cell depletion. Different treatment approaches are currently being explored to mitigate complications such as graft rejection, severe GvHD, and prolonged immune suppression. Novel experimental utilization of T regulatory cells, alloreactive natural killer (NK) cells, and other T cell subsets hold great promise. Cellect Biotherapeutics' platform technology, ApoGraft, is based on the findings that GvHD can be prevented by Fas receptor mediated selective depletion of T cell subsets, ex vivo. The investigators hypothesize that the use of ApoGrafts for haplo-HSCT will be safe, and reduce rates of GVHD without affecting Graft-versus-Leukemia (GvL).