Gene-Knocked Out Chimeric Antigen Receptor (Car) T Cells: Tuning up for the Next Generation Cancer Immunotherapy Publisher Pubmed

Summary: Research suggests pairing CAR T-cell therapy with gene-editing tools like CRISPR could make treatments more effective against advanced cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma. A promising step forward. #CancerResearch #Immunotherapy

Mirzaei HR¹ ; Pourghadamyari H² ; Rahmati M³ ; Mohammadi A⁴ ; Nahand JS⁵ ; Rezaei A⁶ ; Mirzaei H⁷ ; Hadjati J¹
Source: Cancer Letters Published:2018

Abstract

Recently clinical trials utilizing genetically engineered T cells expressing a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) that is half monoclonal antibody and half T-cell receptor have demonstrated remarkable response in patients with advanced cancers like relapsed or refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and lymphoma. Moreover, emerging chimeric genome editing tools such as zinc-finger nucleases (ZNFs), transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs) and clustered regulatory interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)/Cas composed of sequence-specific DNA binding module(s) linked to a non-specific DNA cleavage domain have made possible to dramatically expand the ability to manipulate cells aim to treat and/or study a wide range of diseases including cancer. Here, we will discuss how joint application of these two chimeras will help us to manipulate CAR T cells aiming to enhance the efficacy of CAR T cell therapy in preclinical and clinical settings. © 2018 Elsevier B.V.