Personalized Medicine for Cancer Treatment

Immuno-oncology represents the new wave of personalized medicine. Scientists at the University of Kansas have developed an innovative approach to activate intracellular signaling pathways that enhance T cell activation, expansion, and differentiation.

Chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) are engineered T cell receptors (TCRs) that are grafted onto T cells obtained from cancer patients. The newly modified T cells are reintroduced into the cancer patient. Because the T cell receptor is engineered to include an antibody that specifically matches the patient's cancer, the newly introduced T cells are able to recognize and kill the cancer cells. There is potential for CAR-T therapy to treat cancer, however, there are significant side effects. In order to improve the safety profile of these therapies, KU researchers incorporated engineered CAR into the endogenous T cell receptor (TCR) complex - resulting in tighter control and regulation.

APPLICATION: 

-Individualized cancer therapy offers the potential for significant improvement in outcomes.

-Precise activation and signaling kinetics; thereby promoting more efficient tumor destruction as compared to other techniques.

-Can be tailored to recognize multiple tumor antigens and immunomodulatory molecules.

-Graft-vs-host disease

BENEFTIS:

-Broadly applicable, highly successful in patients on trial

-Likely to work in combination with a number of current cancer therapies.

-Engineered T cells are constitutively active, resulting in exhaustion and inability to respond to repeated or sustained exposure

-CAR-expressing T cells fail to expand and persist as memory cells

-Cytokine release syndrome that results from rapid and robust activation of CAR-expressing T cells.