BioCentury
ARTICLE | Preclinical News

IL-18 secreting CAR T cells enhance immune killing of tumors

December 18, 2017 10:25 PM UTC

In a paper published in Cell Reports, researchers at the University of Cologne showed that a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell engineered to release IL-18 converts the CAR T cell to a proinflammatory T cell that augments the immune attack on solid tumors.

The researchers screened for cytokines that induce a T cell expression signature of high T-box21 (Tbet; TBX21) and low forkhead box 01 (FOXO1) -- which the authors have tied to acute inflammatory responsiveness and long-term immune activation -- and identified IL-18. IL-12 had similar but less potent activity...