Universal appeal for CARs

Chimeric antigen receptor-expressing T cells have shown dramatic efficacy in treating blood cancers, but so far only autologous, modified T cells can be used, making manufacturing labor intensive and expensive. Now, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Sangamo BioSciences Inc. have taken a step toward a universal immunotherapy by using gene-modifying tools to mask donor-derived T cells from the standard immune surveillance machinery in the recipient.¹ The MD Anderson team is already planning clinical trials with such cells targeting CD19.

Universal, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-expressing T cells would have two key traits-the cells would not attack the host via the graft-versus-host (GvH) response and the host would not attack the cells via the host-versus-graft (HvG) response...