Research provides clues to improving CAR-T for solid tumors

Source: Healio, November 2021

Recent molecular science research may provide important insights as to why chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapies for solid tumors have failed to achieve results that match those observed in blood cancers.

Researchers from Thomas Jefferson University developed CAR T cells that target high-molecular-weight melanoma-associated antigen and compared them with designed to target a specific peptide-MHC ligand in melanoma cell lines.

Testing conducted in an in vitro model system showed that even though the modified cells contained a similar number of receptors, TCR T cells required “significantly lower” levels of their target molecule on cells before triggering the release of cytolytic granules that kill cancer cells, according to Yuri K. Sykulev, MD, PhD, professor of microbiology and immunology at Thomas Jefferson University and researcher at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center —Jefferson Health.

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