{"id":46166,"date":"2023-09-27T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-27T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cancer.gov\/news-events\/cancer-currents-blog\/2023\/universal-car-t-cell-blood-cancer"},"modified":"2024-11-03T15:12:23","modified_gmt":"2024-11-03T15:12:23","slug":"researchers-develop-a-potential-universal-car-t-cell-therapy-for-blood-cancers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/researchers-develop-a-potential-universal-car-t-cell-therapy-for-blood-cancers\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers Develop a Potential \u201cUniversal\u201d CAR T-Cell Therapy for Blood Cancers"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells floating among other cells. Researchers have developed an approach to CAR T-cell therapy that can potentially treat nearly any blood cancer, including AML.<\/p>\n

Credit: iStock<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

In the Lord of the Rings<\/em>, there was \u201cone ring to rule them all.\u201d Now, a team of researchers is developing their own single ruler, an approach to CAR T-cell therapy<\/a> that could treat all forms and types of blood cancer.<\/p>\n

In experiments in mouse models of different blood cancers, the treatment rapidly eliminated tumors, including in mice with acute myeloid leukemia (AML)<\/a>, a difficult-to-treat type of blood cancer for which researchers have struggled to develop effective immunotherapies. <\/p>\n

There was also no evidence of serious side effects in the animals. And, finally\u2014and distinctly from the standard approach to current CAR T-cell therapies\u2014it provided the mice with a healthy supply of new blood cells. <\/p>\n

Results from the study were published August 31 in Science Translational Medicine<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Developed by a research team at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, the treatment relies on a newer form of the gene-editing technology CRISPR, called base editing. <\/p>\n

But in a unique twist for CAR T-cell therapy, it\u2019s not only T cells<\/a> that undergo genetic engineering. The treatment also involves engineering healthy hematopoietic<\/a> stem cells<\/a>. These are the \u201cimmature\u201d cells that generate all the body\u2019s blood cells, including immune cells (like T cells), and form the basis for the stem cell transplants already commonly used to treat many blood cancers.<\/p>\n

In the new treatment approach, the CRISPR editing results in a slight change to a protein<\/a>, called CD45, that sits on the surface of both the CAR T cells and the stem cells.<\/p>\n

This impostor CD45 protein, in turn, produces a maneuver straight out of another fantasy novel: It provides noncancerous cells with a cloak of invisibility. The proposed result of all of this work: A CAR T-cell therapy that can kill any type of blood cancer cell, and only blood cancer cells, while giving patients a healthy blood and immune system.<\/p>\n

The approach, the researchers believe, could expedite progress with CAR T-cell therapy by eliminating the need to go through the laborious and time-consuming process of developing and testing single therapies for specific blood cancers, which is the case with the currently approved CAR T-cell treatments.<\/p>\n

Sarah Tasian, M.D., chief of the Hematological Malignancies Program at Children\u2019s Hospital of Philadelphia, who was not involved in the study, called the treatment approach \u201cintriguing.\u201d Dr. Tasian cautioned, however, that she\u2019d like to see further testing in other animal models<\/a>, including careful analysis of the treatment\u2019s safety.<\/p>\n

According to one of the study\u2019s lead investigators, Saar Gill, M.D., Ph.D., the team is already engaged in additional testing and other steps needed to advance this treatment approach. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very determined to get this into a clinical trial<\/a>,\u201d Dr. Gill said. \u201cIt\u2019s the only way we\u2019ll know if it\u2019s going to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

A different approach to finding a target antigen<\/h2>\n

From their inception, creating CAR T-cell therapies has been a complicated process<\/a>. <\/p>\n

It involves genetically manipulating T cells collected from patients so that the cells produce specialized receptors<\/a> on their surface, called CARs. Once the engineered T cells are infused back into patients, their CARs latch on to cancer cells via a specific protein on their surface, known as an antigen<\/a>, and kill them.<\/p>\n