Thank Jackjazz for reading the post. Some interesting questions.
1. Is the CDH17 a protein/antigen?
Its a protein from a tumour associated antigen
2. If so is it found on prostate cancer cells?
Yes it's expressed in prostate tissue cancer but it's not a recognised primary biomarkers. Infiltration is maybe 15% . Speculating here on the 15% !
3. If so when men have a PSA test is it a read out of the volume of the CDH17 protein?
Prostate specific antigen is a distinct biomarker v cdh17
4. Is the scFv taken from the cancer cells itself or from a separate antigen that can identify CDH17?
scFv is taken from antibodies not from the cancer cell
5. is CD37 already within the T cells or added/activated through the lab engineering process of the T cells so added to the T cells as part of the CAR?
The scFv attaches to the CD37 " flag" on the cancer cell. Through that domain and signalling the T cells are activated. CD37 normal job is to control fat intake on B cells ( good guys) but it also works as being a food guard for the cancer cells so they don't do a cruise liner binge and get too fat, which is obviously bad. Cdh17 doesn't affect CD37 but eventually with Car T therapy the cancer cell dies and so does the CD37 protein. So no it's not introduced by cdh17 administration.
Hopefully I have got that right for you.
Kpax
(20min delay)