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The Express Drivers: Chimeric Antigen Receptor-Redirected T Cells Make It to the Clinic

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Cancer Immunotherapy Meets Oncology

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Abstract

Adoptive cell therapy with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-redirected T cells recently showed spectacular efficacy in early-phase trials in the treatment of leukemia. The therapeutic approach utilizes patients’ T cells engineered ex vivo with a CAR which is a recombinant receptor molecule consisting in the extracellular part of an antibody-derived binding domain for major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-independent target recognition and in the intracellular part of T-cell receptor (TCR)-derived signaling domains for T-cell activation upon target engagement. The so-called T-body strategy allows T-cell targeting toward any cell surface structure for which an antibody is available. T cells are processed under Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) conditions, engineered by viral vector- or nucleic acid-based gene transfer with the CAR, amplified to therapeutic numbers, and readministered to the patient. Successes in recent trials sustain the hope that specifically redirected patient T cells can control cancer in the long term.

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Acknowledgments

Work in the laboratory of HA was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Else Kröner-Fresenius Stiftung, Wilhelm Sander-Stiftung, the Deutsche Krebshilfe, the European Union (European Regional Development Fund – Investing in your future), the German federal state North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), and the Fortune program of the Medical Faculty of the University of Cologne. Work in the laboratory of WSW was supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, LOEWE Center for Cell and Gene Therapy Frankfurt, and by institutional funds of the Georg-Speyer-Haus, Frankfurt.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne, University of Cologne, Robert-Koch-Str. 21, D-50931, Cologne, Germany

    Hinrich Abken

  2. Department I for Internal Medicine, University Hospital Cologne, Cologne, Germany

    Hinrich Abken

  3. Chemotherapeutisches Forschungsinstitut Georg-Speyer-Haus, Institut für Tumorbiologie und experimentelle Therapie, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Winfried S. Wels

  4. EUFETS GmbH, Idar-Oberstein, Germany

    Klaus Kühlcke

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  1. Hinrich Abken
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  2. Winfried S. Wels
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  3. Klaus Kühlcke
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Correspondence to Hinrich Abken .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Immunotherapy Development Center (IDC), TRON-Translational Oncology University Medical Center, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany

    Cedrik Michael Britten

  2. Department of Immunotherapy Development Center, TRON-Translational Oncology University Medical Center, Johannes Gutenberg-University, Mainz, Germany

    Sebastian Kreiter

  3. Department of Immunotherapy Development Center, TRON-Translational Oncology University Medical Center, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany

    Mustafa Diken

  4. Department of Immunology, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    Hans-Georg Rammensee

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Abken, H., Wels, W.S., Kühlcke, K. (2014). The Express Drivers: Chimeric Antigen Receptor-Redirected T Cells Make It to the Clinic. In: Britten, C., Kreiter, S., Diken, M., Rammensee, HG. (eds) Cancer Immunotherapy Meets Oncology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05104-8_13

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