The groundbreaking approvals of two CAR-T therapies in 2017 was the climax of more than sixty years of devoted research. In the 1950s, the discovery of bone marrow transplantation laid the foundation for developing CAR-T therapy, as it was the first time that living cells were infused into blood cancer patients for the control of cancer.

As early as 1900s, researchers were becoming aware that T cells could easily search, recognize and kill cancer cells. To do this, the cells need a “guide” to direct them to the tumors, and thus, antibodies emerged as a valuable scientific and medical tool. [Read more…]

What are the types of CAR-T cells and how have they changed in recent years? CAR-T cells are immune cells that are artificially engineered to express a particular chimeric antigen receptor (CAR), which have shown great potential in killing cancer cells. Chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) are artificially produced recombinant receptors having both antigen-binding and T-cell activating potentials.

CARs are composed of an extracellular recognition domain sourced from monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and an intracellular signaling domain including CD3- and costimulatory domains for triggering endogenous signaling pathways of T-cells. [Read more…]

Chimeric antigen receptor-modified T (CAR-T) cells are living therapies that are genetically engineered to express CAR molecules targeting antigens found on tumor cells or target cells of interest. Unfortunately, an obstacle for the field of CAR-T cell therapy is limited CAR T cell persistence after infusion into cancer patients. Thus, genetic engineering strategies to improve CAR T cell persistence will be central to the success of these gene-modified cellular therapies. [Read more…]