Last year, the approval of the first CAR-T therapy was a major milestone in the history of cancer treatment. Since the development of this type of breakthrough therapy, one miracle of life has been born. The first girl to receive CAR-T therapy has been cancer-free for five or six years.
Although the effects of such treatments are magical, its potential side effects have always been a hidden danger. Because the lethality of cancer cells is too strong, not all patients can withstand the "cytokine storm" brought about by this therapy. To this end, researchers are also looking for ways to make CAR-T therapy safer and more effective.
â–²Professor Wilson Wong, the author of this study (Source: Boston University)
Today, the top academic journal Cell has published a large study from the team of Professor Wilson Wong at Boston University, which is expected to bring a more secure and effective version of CAR-T Therapy 2.0.
To understand the significance of this research, we must first understand that CAR-T therapy is a paradox. Traditional CAR-T therapy requires the extraction of immune cells from the patient's body and is engineered in vitro to allow them to effectively attack cancer cells. These T cells are then returned to the patient for treatment of cancer. But the researchers pointed out that the traditional method has three areas to be improved - the target is too specific, the intensity of the effect is not easy to control, and the lack of adaptability. These three weaknesses are often the main cause of cancer recurrence.
â–² Researchers call this CAR-T therapy SUPRA CAR-T (Source: Cell)
"Our technology can solve these three problems at once," Professor Wong said.
The birth of this heavy research is only different in the perspective of the problem. In general, we all think of CAR-T therapy as a type of cell therapy, but Professor Wong doesn't think so: "We don't think of CAR-T as a cell that kills cancer. I see it as a Antibodies, this antibody will drag the killer T cells. The beauty of it is that as long as CAR-T cells are activated, it can attract more T cells. Ordinary drugs can't do this."
â–²This CAR-T therapy has a different design concept (Source: Cell)
A simple conceptual transformation has brought about a huge change in the design of CAR-T. Unlike ordinary CAR-T therapy, the new generation of CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) design brought by this group of researchers is divided into two parts, one is the "universal" receptor expressed on T cells, and the other is A separate "tumor" receptor. This design has a very cool place to assign receptors for different tumor antigens depending on the type of tumor. Regardless of which antigen is bound, "tumor receptors" can activate "general receptors" and allow T cells to attack cancer cells.
In contrast, the traditional CAR-T can only be targeted at one type of cancer by one preparation. And this innovative CAR-T therapy can treat many types of cancer in one preparation, supplemented with antibodies against different antigens!
The biggest bright spot of this type of design is that it can effectively control the recurrence of cancer. We know that cancer cells are very clever and will continue to generate new mutations that will allow the targeted antigen targets to disappear, but will also generate new antigen targets. Traditional CAR-T therapy is more dead-headed and only recognizes an antigen, so it is difficult to cope with the evolution of cancer. And this 2.0 CAR-T therapy can see the tricks, what new antigens appear in cancer cells, we will give Its new instructions, let the cancer cells disguise, can not escape the killing of T cells.
â–² Researchers can also fine-tune the cytotoxicity of CAR-T therapy (Source: Cell)
In terms of safety, researchers also have a piece of insurance. They designed a "suppression" tool that blocks the activation of T cells. What's more, this set of tools also has three functions: “strongâ€, “medium†and “weakâ€. The strength of CAR-T therapy can be adjusted as needed, and the precise control of side effects can be achieved while controlling the curative effect.
In this way, the three major deficiencies of the specificity, strength and adaptability of traditional CAR-T therapy have been solved.
So, what is the actual treatment effect of this new generation of CAR-T therapy? The researchers tested it in mice. The results show that, similar to traditional CAR-T therapy, this CAR-T therapy is also effective in controlling cancer. In terms of safety, it can also be fine-tuned according to the control of the researchers.
â–²This CAR-T 2.0 version can also effectively control cancer (Source: Cell)
Looking to the future, Professor Wong expects CAR-T to become the main force in anti-cancer and greatly improve the quality of life of patients. “We want to have a CAR-T product that can be used on demand, so there is no need to create a separate CAR-T therapy for each patient, which can reduce the cost of medical care,†commented Professor Wong.
In this era of cancer immunotherapy, what kind of changes will CAR-T Therapy 2.0 bring? We look forward to getting the answer to this question in clinical trials as soon as possible.
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