A growing number of cancer patients are being offered a promising new treatment called CAR T cell therapy. In this therapy, a patients' own T cells are removed and genetically engineered to better recognize cancer cells. The cells are then returned to the patient's body, where they mount an immune response to destroy the cancer. CAR T-cell therapies have saved lives in patients with blood cancers, but there has been a downside: T cells that enter solid tumors can stop working due to a phenomenon called T cell exhaustion.
Now scientists at the La Jolla Institute of Immunology (LJI) have found a way of counteracting T cell exhaustion and making CAR T cell therapies more effective. Their new study shows that a family of proteins, called Nr4a transcription factors, have a prominent role in regulating the genes associated with T cell exhaustion. Using a mouse model, the scientists demonstrated that treating mice with CAR T cells lacking these Nr4a transcription factors led to smaller tumors and better survival.
The study, published February 27, 2019, in the journal Nature, was led by LJI researcher Anjana Rao, Ph.D., a professor in the Division of Signaling and Gene Expression.
