CAR T cell News and Research

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Combining two immunotherapies into a single treatment found to be more effective

Some of the most promising advances in cancer treatment have centered on immunotherapies that rev up a patient's immune system to attack cancer. But immunotherapies don't work in all patients, and researchers have been searching for ways to increase their effectiveness.

23 Jul 2020

Monash University researchers pave way for affordable immunotherapies

Researchers from Monash University’s Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences are paving the way for accessible and affordable cancer treatment by using powerful nanoscale tools to overcome the high costs and long lead-times associated with one of the world’s newest forms of immunotherapy: CAR-T cell therapy.

22 Jul 2020

Josep Carreras Institute's spin-off aims to develop new immuno-oncological therapeutic tools

The Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute, a public centre pertaining to the Generalitat de Catalunya's (Government of Catalonia) CERCA network, has created the OneChain Immunotherapeutics spin-off, the aim of which is to develop new immuno-oncological therapeutic tools with various preclinical candidates, based on CAR-T technology for different tumors, such as cortical T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (coT-ALL), a rare subtype of leukemia that mainly affects children, and which has a poor prognosis.

20 Jul 2020

How immune cells switch to attack mode

Unraveling a key motif: The T lymphocytes of the immune system work to destroy infected cells or cancer cells. To do so, they have to identify the threat: Molecules perceived as foreign - so-called antigens - bind to the T-cell receptor on the T cell surface.

20 Jul 2020

Promising new CAR T cell therapy results in exceptional patient recovery

In a clinical trial evaluating a novel immunotherapy option for cancer treatment, a child with rhabdomyosarcoma, a form of muscle cancer, that had spread to the bone marrow, showed no detectable cancer following treatment with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells that were engineered to target the HER2 protein on the surface of the cancer cells.

15 Jul 2020

Study identifies possible factors to predict severe toxicities in CAR T patients

Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy (CAR T) has proved to be a valuable treatment option for patients with lymphoma who have failed other therapies. In clinical trials, the cellular immunotherapy was shown to provide durable remissions for nearly 40% of large B cell lymphoma patients.

15 Jul 2020

International research collaboration to investigate the role of immune system in health

An international research collaboration to pioneer the field of immuno-cardiology and investigate ways to harness the power of the immune system to improve recovery from heart attacks will be led at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania by Jonathan Epstein, MD, executive vice dean, chief scientific officer and the William Wikoff Smith Professor of Cardiovascular Research.

13 Jul 2020

Scientists engineer natural killer cells that target tumors and their immunosuppressive allies

Scientists have engineered natural killer immune cells that not only kill head and neck tumor cells in mice but also reduce the immune-suppressing myeloid cells that allow tumors to evade the immune response, according to a new study in eLife.

7 Jul 2020

New NCCN guidelines explain how to recognize and manage immunotherapy-related side effects

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network today announced the completion of the new NCCN Guidelines for Patients®: Immunotherapy Side Effects series, with the publication of a book focused on chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy. This closely follows the publication of a separate book on immune checkpoint inhibitors, both created with support from the NCCN Foundation®.

1 Jul 2020

Noile-Immune Biotech and C4U team up to develop CRISPR/Cas3 technology

Noile-Immune Biotech Inc., ("Noile-Immune") and C4U Corporation, ("C4U") announced that they have entered into an agreement on joint research and commercialization of next-generation allogeneic gene-modified immune cell therapy combining C4U's CRISPR/Cas3 genome editing technology and Noile-Immune's PRIME (Proliferation inducing and migration enhancing) technology designed to improve proliferation and trafficking of immune cells into solid tumors.

27 Jun 2020

Platelets may be contributing to COVID-19

The current pandemic of COVID-19 is characterized mainly by severe acute respiratory distress of the lungs, but other organ dysfunctions are also being observed, including the heart and blood vessels. Now, a new paper published on the preprint server medRxiv* in June 2020 describes the abnormal activation of platelets in this disease and the link between this phenomenon and poor outcomes for COVID-19 patients.

24 Jun 2020

Producing CAR T cell therapy at a lower cost

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy is a new and in some cases highly effective form of immunotherapy to treat certain types of cancer of the blood and lymph system.

23 Jun 2020

Repurposing immunosuppressants to manage COVID-19

It might seem paradoxical to suggest immunosuppression could play a role in managing COVID-19. The seemingly logical therapeutic option for this disease would be an antiviral.

18 Jun 2020

Researchers evaluate survivin expression in neuroendocrine tumors

Volume 11, Issue 23 of @Oncotarget reported that tissue microarrays of 132 patients were stained for survivin using immunohistochemistry and correlated with outcomes.

10 Jun 2020

Tocilizumab in Critical COVID-19 Patients

A new study by scientists at Metro Infectious Disease Consultants and published on the preprint server medRxiv* in June 2020 reports that the cytokine blocker tocilizumab is a useful adjunct to supportive medical care in severe COVID-19, with increased survival and a lower requirement for mechanical ventilation.

10 Jun 2020

Tocilizumab in COVID-19 patients on mechanical ventilation

Now, a new study by researchers from the University of Michigan and published on the online preprint server medRxiv* in June 2020 shows that the cytokine inhibitor tocilizumab could have a favorable effect on survival in the most severely infected patients who require mechanical ventilation. This needs to be confirmed by clinical trials.

7 Jun 2020

Study offers a deeper understanding of T cell immunity in the elderly

A study by Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute (BDI) expands the understanding of the molecular pathways that control T cell function and survival and how it relates to declining T cell immunity in the elderly.

5 Jun 2020

A cytokine pattern that predicts adverse outcomes in COVID-19

A new study published on the preprint server medRxiv in May 2020 reports the discovery of a predictive pattern of cytokines in COVID-19 infection that could guide clinical management if validated.

2 Jun 2020

Researchers develop promising immunotherapy treatment for glioblastoma

Researchers of McMaster University and the University of Toronto have developed a promising immunotherapy treatment for a deadly form of adult brain cancer called glioblastoma.

27 May 2020

IL-6 blocker use in severe COVID-19 increases risk of secondary infections

With many hundreds of thousands of deaths due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, there is a rush to find an effective vaccine or drug against the virus. A new study on the preprint server medRxiv* in May 2020 shows that the use of some biologically plausible drugs may be counterproductive, and care should be taken when trying out unproven therapies.

22 May 2020