TXA127 in Enhancement of Engraftment in Adult Double Cord Blood Transplantation

Cord blood as a hematopoietic stem cell source has multiple advantages. Cord blood is normally discarded at birth and can easily be collected and stored. Availability of numerous CB banks has resulted in genetically diverse CB units including those from non-Caucasians. Once a suitable CB unit is located, confirmatory typing can be quickly performed and a donor unit can be shipped to the transplant center. Furthermore, because a CB graft results in a lower incidence of graft-versus-host-disease, one or two antigen-mismatched units are acceptable for transplantation. Despite these advantages, CB has a significant drawback which is that the number of hematopoietic stem cells obtained from a unit of CB is significantly lower than from a bone marrow (BM) harvest or peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) harvest. Both engraftment and immune reconstitution are delayed in patients undergoing CB transplant. TXA127 is pharmaceutically-formulated angiotensin 1-7, a non-hypertensive derivative of angiotensin II (which contains the 8th amino acid conferring receptor binding to blood pressure receptors). TXA127 has multilineage effects on hematopoietic progenitors in vitro and in vivo. The hematopoietic properties demonstrated in preclinical and clinical studies support the investigation of TXA127 to reduce time to neutrophil and platelet engraftment following transfusion of limited number of CD34+ cells.