Switchable Chimeric Antigen Receptor (sCAR) (sCAR)

CLBR001 refers to a switchable Chimeric Antigen Receptor (sCAR) T-cell platform developed by Calibr at Scripps Research to enhance the safety and control of CAR-T cell therapies (Calibr, 2024). Unlike conventional CAR-T cells that directly bind tumor antigens, CLBR001 sCAR-T cells are engineered to recognize a specific peptide neo-epitope (PNE) tag (NCT04450069). The system requires a bifunctional switch molecule (SWI019) that bridges the sCAR-T cell and the CD19 antigen on B-cell malignancies (Rodgers et al., 2016). This mechanism allows for dose-dependent regulation of T-cell activation, providing a safety off-switch if toxicities occur (Kim et al., 2015). By decoupling the antigen recognition from the T-cell, the platform aims to reduce the risk of cytokine release syndrome and allow for multi-antigen targeting (Calibr, 2024). This approach represents a significant advancement in synthetic biology applied to immunotherapy, offering a programmable method to manage the potency and specificity of engineered immune cells.

Other names

CLBR001sCAR-TSwitchable CAR-TPNE-binding CARCalibr-001

The CLBR001 system employs a universal sCAR-T cell that recognizes a peptide neo-epitope (PNE) tag. A bifunctional switch molecule (SWI019) binds the PNE on the CAR and the CD19 antigen on tumor cells, facilitating an immunological synapse and subsequent T-cell mediated lysis (NCT04450069, Rodgers et al., 2016).