Anti-cancer therapy has been upgraded with new weapons and drugs that can directly take effect on tumors!

Chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CAR-T) are a promising anti-cancer therapy.

But CAR-T therapy also has certain limitations.

However, a new study in Nature Chemical Biology has once again upgraded CAR-T cells, allowing their combat effectiveness to skyrocket

The research calls this new drug SEAKER cells (Synthetic Enzyme-Armed KillER), which can act as a miniature pharmacy, and to play a role in killing tumors is a molecule called AMS found in past research, which is in A compound discovered in the development of antibiotics can safely and effectively kill cancer cells when produced only in the area of ​​a tumor

But previous mouse studies have shown that AMS is so potent that it is highly toxic when injected directly into the bloodstream

Since AMS cannot enter the blood directly, the researchers managed to add a "tail" that masks its activity so that they are inactive in the blood, known as prodrugs

At this point, CAR-T cells become an effective helper

CAR-T carries specific markers and will go all the way to the tumor, so this part of the enzyme will also function in the tumor area, allowing AMS to play a specific role in the tumor

▲SEAKER cells combined with prodrugs can effectively remove tumors (Image source: Reference [2])

In the tumor mouse model, the researchers first introduced SEAKER cells into the mice, and then injected the prodrug of AMS two days later

When the CAR-T has been depleted, this drug supply process can still persist and will not be inhibited by cancer cells

Note: The original text has been deleted

References:

[1] Scientists retool CAR T cells to serve as 'micropharmacies' for cancer drugs.

[2] TJ Gardner et al, Engineering CAR-T cells to activate small-molecule drugs in situ, Nature Chemical Biology (2021).