BC44 CAR-T

BC44 CAR-T is an experimental second-generation chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy targeting B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA), primarily investigated for the treatment of multiple myeloma. Developed by researchers at the Technical University of Munich using the Bindcraft computational protein design pipeline, BC44 CAR-T utilizes a de novo designed binder as its extracellular antigen-recognition domain rather than a traditional antibody-derived single-chain variable fragment (scFv). In preclinical studies, BC44 CAR-T demonstrated robust antigen-specific cytotoxicity and cytokine production, achieving significant tumor control in multiple myeloma xenograft models. Notably, functional profiling revealed that BC44 CAR-T exhibits reduced activity against tumor cells harboring specific BCMA mutations associated with resistance to other BCMA-targeted therapies like teclistamab, distinguishing its epitope specificity from other candidates in the same program, such as BC28 CAR-T.