United Immunity Acquires Macrophage Assets from Carisma Therapeutics

Editor’s Take: A novel approach to cell therapies targeting unmet needs may offer an improved safety profile.

United Immunity, a biotechnology company, is acquiring multiple assets including macrophages from Carisma Therapeutics, for cancer and liver fibrosis treatment.

At United Immunity, the proprietary Myeloid Targeting Platform is in development for therapeutic, in-vivo disease-associated macrophage and dendritic cell engineering. Carisma is leveraging innovative assets in combination with United Immunity’s polyethylene glycol (PEG)-free, pullulan-coated lipid nanoparticle (P-LNP) delivery system. This process will generate in-vivo chimeric antigen receptor—macrophage (CAR-M) and other genetically engineered macrophages.

How Carisma Collab Moves Therapies Forward

The integration in this approach ultimately stands to advance next-generation therapies for solid tumors as well as fibrosis diseases.

“[The assets] boost the efficacy of in-vivo engineered anti-tumor or anti-fibrotic macrophages,” said United Immunity CEO Masato Kishida. “Our in-vivo CAR-M therapy boosted by these proprietary assets represent a promising therapeutic approach for patients with solid tumors.”

Additionally, Kishida said, this strategy may provide an improved safety profile in two distinct ways. It can reduce risk of cytokine release syndrome (CRS) and immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome (ICANS). These are frequently associated with CAR T-cell (CAR-T) cell therapies.

More on United Immunity

The Myeloid Targeting Platform delivers therapeutic payloads directly to disease-associated macrophages and dendritic cells. This targeted delivery covers a broad range of therapeutics: small molecules, nucleic acids, peptides, and proteins. Not only does the approach hold promise in cancer and fibrosis, but also infectious, autoimmune, and inflammatory diseases.

United Immunity’s lead program, UI-102, delivers a TLR7/8 small-molecule agonist to tumor-associated macrophages. The goal of this is to convert immunologically “cold” tumors into “hot” ones that are immune-sensitive.