New Cell Contenders in the CAR Field (Part 1)

Chimeric antigen receptor T-cells (CAR-T) are one of the first clinically approved therapies to take full advantage of the most significant advancements in immunology and genetic engineering.  

The resulting therapeutics have been shown to produce remission rates exceeding 80% in patients with CD19+ B-cell lymphoma, making them nothing short of remarkable [1]. Unfortunately, CAR-T cells seem to have several caveats, which have limited their translation to other types of cancer [2]. The immune system is comprised of a large number of different cell types, each with unique roles to prevent the progression of cancer [3,4]. This has led scientists to explore the incorporation of chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) in other types beyond T cells [5-7]. Natural killer cells (NK cells) and macrophages seem to have the most potential as alternative CAR-based cell therapies, which may be able to overcome many of the challenges seen with CAR-T [6-9]. In this and the following edition of the Indee blog, we wish to discuss each of these cell types in detail.