Can an anti-cancer therapy fix the tumor?

As a "vanguard" against infections and abnormal cells, T cells are also effective tools for fighting cancer cells

Specially designed T cells can often recognize specific molecules on the surface of cancer cells to enhance the immune system's attack on tumors

According to a study in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, there is a new idea that can improve the effect of T cell therapy on solid tumors

Professor Sykulev and his colleagues have modified T cells to recognize the high molecular weight melanoma-associated antigen (HMW-MAA) on melanoma

The test results show that only when melanoma expresses high levels of HMW-MAA, CAR-T can be effective to kill cancer cells, and if the expression of HMW-MAA is very low, then the tumor can escape

But there is another approach that seems to work better in this research, namely, engineered T cell receptor (TCR-T) therapy

TCR-T is more similar to the natural T cells in the human body.

Professor Sykulev also designed a batch of TCR-T cells and found that even if the antigen level of TCR-T cell targets is very low, even far below the threshold level at which CAR-T cells can recognize antigens, they can still kill melanin.

Studies have pointed out that with the same number of T cells, CAR-T therapy requires higher levels of target antigens and is more susceptible to impact

Note: The original text has been deleted

Reference materials:

[1] Nadia Anikeeva et al, Efficient killing of tumor cells by CAR-T cells requires greater number of engaged CARs than TCRs, Journal of Biological Chemistry (2021).

[2] CAR-T immunotherapy could be improved to kill solid tumors.