CAR immune Cell therapy
Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) immune cell therapy has transformed the treatment of cancer, especially for hematological cancers. Its effectiveness notwithstanding, it still faces challenges, especially when treating solid tumors. Recent progress indicates that it can be combined with multimodal strategies to further improve its efficiency in treating cancers.
Understanding CAR immune cell therapy
CAR immune cell therapy includes the engineering of a patient’s immune cells to carry receptors for recognizing particular antigens on tumor cells. Through this alteration, the immune system can target and destroy cancer cells efficiently. While CAR-T cell therapy has proved highly successful with blood cancers, its use for solid tumors encounters challenges like the immunosuppressive nature of the tumor microenvironment and physical barriers that block immune cell invasion.
Challenges in treatment of solid tumor
The tumor microenvironment (TME) of solid tumors is a challenging obstacle. It consists of different elements that shield cancer cells and inhibit immune responses. Physical barriers, including dense extracellular matrices, hinder the penetration of therapeutic drugs and immune cells. Moreover, the TME creates an immunosuppressive environment, enhancing regulatory T cells and myeloid-derived suppressor cells that suppress the function of CAR-modified immune cells.
Multimodal strategies to enhance CAR therapy
To overcome these challenges, researchers are exploring multimodal strategies that combine CAR immune cell therapy with other treatments:
- Combining CAR therapy with chemotherapy and radiotherapy: Chemoradiation and radiotherapy can influence the TME, sensitizing it to immune assault. Radiotherapy and chemoradiation are capable of reducing tumor mass and dismantling immunosuppressive hurdles to enable CAR-enlisted immune cells’ infiltration and efficacy.
- Incorporating immune check point inhibitors: Immune checkpoint inhibitors, like those against PD-1/PD-L1 axes, can reduce the immunosuppression within the TME. By inhibiting these negative signals, CAR-engineered immune cells are able to sustain their activity and long-term presence, resulting in enhanced anti-tumor activity.
- Utilizing oncolytic viruses: Oncolytic viruses selectively infect and kill tumor cells, making them release tumor antigens and induce an immune response. When combined with CAR therapy, the viruses enhance antigen presentation and inhibit tumor-induced immunosuppression, making the environment more amenable to CAR-modified immune cells.
- Engineering CAR Cells with enhanced features: Genetic engineering advancements enable the creation of CAR-modified immune cells with other characteristics, including resistance to immunosuppressive factors or pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion. These modifications can enhance the survival, proliferation, and cytotoxicity of CAR-modified immune cells in the hostile TME.
Clinical implications and future directions
CAR immune cell therapy incorporated with multimodal therapies has potential to enhance clinical outcomes in oncology, specifically for solid malignancies. Preclinical studies along with ongoing trials are exploring combined modalities and determining synergisms and optimal treatments. Personalized medicine strategies are necessary to consider the individual specificities of a patient’s cancer and TME to achieve an optimal effect for these combined therapeutic modalities.
In summary, although CAR immune cell therapy has made tremendous progress, its complete potential, particularly against solid tumors, can be tapped through well-planned combinations with other treatment modalities. Multimodality addresses the intricacies of the TME and optimizes the anti-tumor activity of CAR-engineered immune cells, leading to more potent cancer therapies.
Prof. Yun Chang
Dr. Yun Chang is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He joined the university in 2024 after completing his postdoctoral research at Purdue University from 2019 to 2024.
Dr. Chang's academic background includes:
Bachelor's degree from Jilin University (2013)
Ph.D. from the Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry (CIAC), Chinese Academy of Sciences (2019)13
His research interests focus on:
Gene editing and targeted differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells
Application of intelligent, functionalized biomaterials for disease immunotherapy
Stem cell engineering for immunotherapy
Dr. Chang has made significant contributions to his field, having authored over 40 research papers in prestigious international academic journals. His work has been published in journals such as Nature Communications, Bioactive Materials, Advanced Materials, and Nano Letters. He has also filed six patent applications.
As a rising researcher in biomedical engineering, Dr. Chang's work contributes to advancing stem cell immunotherapy, biomaterials engineering, and nanomedicine.
