A new cancer immunotherapy approach devised by Mayo Clinic researchers combines chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy with a cancer-killing virus. In animal models, the dual therapy, in the form of a virus-loaded CAR T cell, has been shown to target and treat solid cancer tumors more effectively than either the CAR T-cell therapy or the virus alone, or indeed, the CAR T-cell therapy and the virus administered sequentially.
Details about the new approach appeared in Science Translational Medicine, in an article titled, “Oncolytic virus–mediated expansion of dual-specific CAR T cells improves efficacy against solid tumors in mice.” The article indicates that virus-loaded CAR T cells can transfer and release an oncolytic virus in the vicinity of tumor cells, and that tumor cells subsequently become infected, suffer viral replication, and burst open. This sequence of events leads to a potent immune response.
“We show in an immunocompetent mouse model that coadministration of an oncolytic virus (OV) with CAR T cells expands dual-specific (DS) CAR T cells through presentation of viral antigens through their T-cell receptor (TCR),” the article’s authors wrote. “[This approach confers] a potent proliferative advantage, distinct memory phenotypes, and superior efficacy compared to virus alone or to CAR T cells without OV-mediated TCR stimulation.”
Continue reading… “CAR T Cells “Loaded” with Oncolytic Viruses Boost Attack on Solid Tumors”
