The field of adoptive cell transfer (ACT) is currently comprised of CAR and TCR engineered T cells and has emerged from principles of basic immunology to paradigm-shifting clinical immunotherapy. ACT of T cells engineered to express artificial receptors that target cells of choice is an exciting new approach for cancer, and holds equal promise for chronic infection and autoimmunity.
T cells are immune system cells that play several key roles in the body’s fight against disease. They help the immune system respond to disease and directly kill abnormal cells. Unfortunately, naturally occurring T cells in patients with cancer are not good at recognizing and fighting cancer cells. But in a CAR-T treatment, a specialist collects and makes a small change to your T cells. After a few weeks, you have a drip containing these cells back into your bloodstream. The CAR T-cells then recognise and attack the cancer cells.
In hematological malignancies like leukemias, myeloma, and non-Hodgkin B-cell lymphomas, adoptive CAR-T cell therapy has shown efficacy in treating chemotherapy refractory patients. However,CAR-T cell application in solid tumors remains challenging, and most research is in development. Several clinical trials are ongoing for pediatric solid tumors.
T cell receptor-engineered T cell (TCR-T) therapy is free from the limit of surface antigen expression of the target cells, which is a potential cellular immunotherapy for cancer treatment. Engineered TCR therapy equips activated T cells with specific receptors that target their complementary cancer antigens. Significant advances in the treatment of hematologic malignancies with cellular immunotherapy have aroused the interest of researchers in the treatment of solid tumors.
At present, trials on CAR-T and TCR-T cell immunotherapy for the treatment of solid tumors are being carried out extensively. KAEDI is solving the difficulties and pain of solid tumors through the synthetic biological technology platform-KD-SmCARTM. It is believed that with the deepening of research, CAR-T and TCR-T cell immunotherapy will bring new hope to cancer patients.