Viruses, BiTEs, and T-cells: A Triple Threat to Tackle Cancer:
CAR-T takes T-cells, cells which seek out and/or destroy disease in the body and uses synthetic DNA to alter them so they can recognize cancer cells via a specific protein (of the scientists choice) on the cancer cell surface. When put back into the patient the CAR-T cells can now seek out cancer cells and destroy them by signaling the bodies own immune system to attack cancer, much like it would an infection. This one of the most promising new cancer therapies available, with the first drug of its kind (Kymriah), approved last year. However, CAR-T is not without fault. The study highlights two major issues with CAR-T, using T-cells which seek out Folate receptor α (FRα), a protein on the surface of several cancers including ovarian3. First, they show that the CAR-T cells select for tumour cells which don’t have FRα, killing the ones with it and leaving a population without FRα behind; this essentially “evolves” a tumour to escape the treatment. Second, the tumour is often an...