Cancer-fighting immune cells could soon be engineered inside our bodies

Cancer-fighting immune cells could soon be engineered inside our bodies

Manufacturing CAR T cells in the laboratory is expensive and time-consuming. An in vivo approach could get the powerful therapy to more people. Manufacturing CAR T cells in the laboratory is expensive and time-consuming. An in vivo approach could get the powerful therapy to more people.

Solid tumours: CAR-T therapies’ Waterloo - Pharmaceutical Technology

Expanding the reach of CAR-T therapeutics could unlock promising new treatment possibilities for solid tumour patients.

Seven patients at St George’s Hospital in Tooting have received CAR-T therapy for blood cancer, with most now in remission.

One of them, 74-year-old Gordon Macniven, is now back enjoying life, exploring London again after treatment for lymphoma. CAR-T therapy uses a patient’s own engineered immune cells to destroy cancer and is a one-time treatment for certain blood cancers. St George’s is urging eligible patients to consider CAR-T, offering hope when other treatments fail.

Aging May Limit Effective CAR-T Cell Response

Swiss researchers have shown that chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy becomes less effective with age due to increasing mitochondrial dysfunction. Importantly, they found that this can be overcome by targeting falling levels of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD), a co-enzyme that plays a key role in metabolism. “Our findings strengthen the growing recognition that aging fundamentally reshapes immune cell function and metabolism,”…

Cutting CAR T Costs via Decentralization, Vector-Alternatives, and Artificial Intelligence

High manufacturing costs are limiting patient access to CAR T cell therapies, according to new research, which indicates that decentralization, vector-free modification technologies, and AI would help make production cheaper. Making CAR T therapies is an expensive business. A recent study suggested that producing a single batch can cost anywhere between $170,000 and $220,000, depending on the logistical, processing, and distribution steps involv…