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Current Molecular Medicine

Editor-in-Chief

ISSN (Print): 1566-5240
ISSN (Online): 1875-5666

The Weal and Woe of Costimulation in the Adoptive Therapy of Cancer with Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR)-Redirected T Cells

Author(s): A. A. Hombach, A. Holzinger and H. Abken

Volume 13, Issue 7, 2013

Page: [1079 - 1088] Pages: 10

DOI: 10.2174/1566524011313070003

Price: $65

Abstract

Adoptive cell therapy has shown impressive efficacy to combat cancer in early phase clinical trials, in particular when T cells engineered to specifically target tumor cells were applied. The patient's T cells are genetically equipped with a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) which allows them to be redirected in a predefined manner towards virtually any target; by using an antibody-derived domain for binding, CAR T cells can be redirected in a major histocompatibility complex (MHC) dependent and independent fashion. The CAR also provides the stimuli required to induce and maintain T cell activation. Recent clinical data sustain the notion that strong costimulation in conjunction with the primary activation signal is crucial for lasting therapeutic efficacy of CAR T cells. However, costimulation is a double-edged sword and the impact of the individual costimuli to optimize T cell activation is still under debate; some general rules are emerging. The review summarizes how costimulation modulates, improves and prolongs the redirected anti-tumor T cell response and how the same costimulatory signals may contribute to unintended side effects including "cytokine storm" and T cell repression. Upcoming strategies to break the activation/repression circle by using CAR's with modified costimulatory signals are also discussed.

Keywords: Adoptive cell therapy, cancer, chimeric antigen receptor, CD28, immunotherapy, T cell, OX40 (CD134), 4-1BB (CD137).


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