Cancer-Homing CAR-T Cells and Endogenous Immune Population Dynamics
1
Center for Advanced Studies and Technology (CAST), Laboratory of Cancer Pathology, University “G. d’Annunzio”, 66100 Chieti, Italy
2
Department of Medical, Oral and Biotechnological Sciences, University “G. d’Annunzio”, 66100 Chieti, Italy
3
Department of Medicine and Aging Sciences, Section of Biomorphology, University “G. d’Annunzio”, 66100 Chieti, Italy
4
Unit of Medical Genetics, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Messina, 98122 Messina, Italy
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: Steve N. Fiering
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022, 23(1), 405; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23010405
Received: 21 November 2021
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Revised: 27 December 2021
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Accepted: 28 December 2021
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Published: 30 December 2021
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Molecular Immunology of Solid Tumors)
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) therapy is based on patient blood-derived T cells and natural killer cells, which are engineered in vitro to recognize a target antigen in cancer cells. Most CAR-T recognize target antigens through immunoglobulin antigen-binding regions. Hence, CAR-T cells do not require the major histocompatibility complex presentation of a target peptide. CAR-T therapy has been tremendously successful in the treatment of leukemias. On the other hand, the clinical efficacy of CAR-T cells is rarely detected against solid tumors. CAR-T-cell therapy of cancer faces many hurdles, starting from the administration of engineered cells, wherein CAR-T cells must encounter the correct chemotactic signals to traffic to the tumor in sufficient numbers. Additional obstacles arise from the hostile environment that cancers provide to CAR-T cells. Intense efforts have gone into tackling these pitfalls. However, we argue that some CAR-engineering strategies may risk missing the bigger picture, i.e., that a successful CAR-T-cell therapy must efficiently intertwine with the complex and heterogeneous responses that the body has already mounted against the tumor. Recent findings lend support to this model.
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MDPI and ACS Style
Guerra, E.; Di Pietro, R.; Basile, M.; Trerotola, M.; Alberti, S. Cancer-Homing CAR-T Cells and Endogenous Immune Population Dynamics. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2022, 23, 405. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23010405
AMA Style
Guerra E, Di Pietro R, Basile M, Trerotola M, Alberti S. Cancer-Homing CAR-T Cells and Endogenous Immune Population Dynamics. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 2022; 23(1):405. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23010405
Chicago/Turabian StyleGuerra, Emanuela, Roberta Di Pietro, Mariangela Basile, Marco Trerotola, and Saverio Alberti. 2022. "Cancer-Homing CAR-T Cells and Endogenous Immune Population Dynamics" International Journal of Molecular Sciences 23, no. 1: 405. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23010405
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