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Designer T-cells and T-cell receptors for customized cancer immunotherapies

Mateusz Legut1, Andrew K Sewell1

  • 1Division of Infection and Immunity, Cardiff University School of Medicine, Henry Wellcome Building, University Hospital Wales, Cardiff CF14 4XN, Wales, UK.

Current Opinion in Pharmacology
|June 1, 2018
PubMed

Insights

Researchers are enhancing T-cell receptors (TCRs) to improve cancer immunotherapy. This involves engineering TCRs for higher affinity and specificity to target tumors, potentially leading to new off-the-shelf treatments.

Area of Science:

  • Oncology
  • Immunology
  • Biotechnology

Background:

  • Cancer immunotherapy has revolutionized cancer treatment by utilizing the immune system.
  • T-cell receptors (TCRs) are crucial for T-cells to recognize and target cancer cells.
  • Naturally occurring TCRs often have low affinity for cancer antigens, limiting their effectiveness.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To describe methods for obtaining T-cell receptors (TCRs) with improved affinity and specificity for cancer.
  • To explore novel strategies for targeting tumor-specific mutations using engineered TCRs.
  • To provide an outlook on developing off-the-shelf immunotherapies.

Main Methods:

  • Protein engineering to enhance TCR affinity and specificity.
  • Selection of natural TCRs from diverse repertoires.
  • Focus on targeting tumor-specific mutations.

Main Results:

  • Approaches to procure TCRs with enhanced affinity and specificity are presented.
  • Novel methods for targeting tumor-specific mutations are discussed.
  • Potential for improved cancer immunotherapy through TCR engineering.

Conclusions:

  • Enhancing TCR affinity and specificity is key to advancing cancer immunotherapy.
  • Targeting tumor-specific mutations offers a promising strategy.
  • Genome editing advances may enable novel off-the-shelf immunotherapies.

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