In vivo CAR T cell advances showcased at ASGCT

At least six companies presented advances to platforms for engineering CAR T cells in vivo, ranging from enhanced T cell specificity, efficiency and durability to improved manufacturing, according to abstracts from the 2023 meeting of the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT).

The main benefit of in vivo CAR Ts, which involve systemically delivering a gene encoding the CAR to T cells in the body, is that they avoid the manufacturing complexity of autologous CAR T cell therapies. Though highly effective, autologous CAR T cells require removing a patient’s T cells, engineering them to express a CAR, then delivering them back. The hope is that creating CAR T cells in the body, without ever removing them from the patient, will achieve the same level of efficacy without requiring personalized manufacturing (see Diagram)...