[Immune cell therapy using iPS cells]

Adoptive cell therapy using tumor-infiltrating T cells has shown durable responses in patients with melanoma, and immunotherapy using genetically engineered T cells (TCR-T or CAR-T) is rapidly emerging as a promising treatment, especially for hematological malignancies. However, the progress is limited because of the lack of readily available good-quality human T cells. Although the efficacy of adoptive cell therapy correlates with the quality of infusing T cells, most antigen-specific T cells in patients with cancer have been exhausted. To overcome this, we have reprogrammed donor (or original) T cells to iPS cells (T-iPS) and differentiated these into rejuvenated antigen-specific cells (T-iPS-T). Moreover, iPS cells provide an unlimited source of genetically engineered T cells such as TCR/CAR-T or PD-1 knockout T cells. The iPS cells' potential for immune cell therapy is infinite.