The Role of CAR T Cells in Human Health and Disease
A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Biology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2024 | Viewed by 1025
Special Issue Editor
2. German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT), German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
Interests: tumor antigens; peptide vacation; cell therapy; CAR T cells; TCR T cells; tolerance induction
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Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
In the last 5 years, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells became a standard clinical treatment option for patients with CD19+ leukemia and lymphoma, as well as for BCMA+ multiple myeloma. They are currently used in 2500 patients per year in Europe and 25,000 patients in the USA. Response rates are high (80–100%) but after 3 years, only 10–20% of adult leukemia and 40% of adult lymphoma patients are still free from relapse. Side effects like immune-cell-associated neuropathy syndrome (ICANS), cytokine release syndrome (CRS) and hematotoxicity vary from product to product.
Therefore, there is a lot of room for improvement. In current research, there exist promising approaches with novel target cancer antigens, multi-antigen targeting, enhancement of CAR T cells by novel vector constructs like TRUCKs, cytokines like IL-15, inhibition of nocious interaction of other immune cells like NK cells and MDSC cells with CAR T cells. Combination approaches of CAR T cells with peptide, protein or mRNA vaccines in the mouse model as well as in clinical studies will be of highest interest. Non-viral approaches like transposons, minicircles, nanoplasmids, etc., will be highly appreciated.
Last, but not least, gene editing of genes improving CAR T cell function and interaction with other players of the immune system will open new avenues towards our goal to make CAR T cell therapy even more safe and effective.
The present Special Issue aims to provide a broad overview on all the above-mentioned fields of research and development in current CAR T cell therapy. I am looking forward to your upcoming submissions.
Prof. Dr. Michael Schmitt
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- CAR T cells
- vector design
- combined vaccination and CAR T cell therapy
- non-viral transductioin
- genetic engineering