Increasing CAR-T Cell Therapy Specificity in Order to Reduce Damage to Normal Cells

Abstract

Cancer immunotherapy is an increasingly popular area of research when it comes to treatment. This type of therapy uses the T lymphocyte to engage the immune system in order to fight against cancer. A recent advancement in this treatment is the use of Chimeric Antigen Receptor, or CAR, -T cell therapy which uses synthetically engineered receptors to redirect T-cells to recognize and eliminate cancer cells which express a specific target antigen. This therapy is innovative but does come with certain barriers including potential damage to normal cells and limited effectiveness against solid malignancies. A study from Satoru et. al discover that a “double arm” CAR T-cell system improves target-cell specificity, thus reducing damage done to normal cells. This information is key to improving the efficiency of this therapy. Continued research is still needed to further remove the barriers of this treatment.