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Updated: Jun 21, 2025
A Real-time Potency Assay for Chimeric Antigen Receptor T Cells Targeting Solid and Hematological Cancer Cells
Published on: November 12, 2019
CARTAR: a comprehensive web tool for identifying potential targets in chimeric antigen receptor therapies using TCGA
Miguel Hernandez-Gamarra1,2, Alba Salgado-Roo1,2, Eduardo Dominguez2
1Genomic Medicine Group, Center for Research in Molecular Medicine and Chronic Diseases (CiMUS), University of Santiago de Compostela, Av. Barcelona, 15706 A Coruña, Spain.
Abstract:
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) therapy has emerged as a ground-breaking advancement in cancer treatment, harnessing the power of engineered human immune cells to target and eliminate cancer cells. The escalating interest and investment in CAR therapy in recent years emphasize its profound significance in clinical research, positioning it as a rapidly expanding frontier in the field of personalized cancer therapies. A crucial step in CAR therapy design is choosing the right target as it determines the therapy's effectiveness, safety and specificity against cancer cells, while sparing healthy tissues. Herein, we propose a suite of tools for the identification and analysis of potential CAR targets leveraging expression data from The Cancer Genome Atlas and Genotype-Tissue Expression Project, which are implemented in CARTAR website. These tools focus on pinpointing tumor-associated antigens, ensuring target selectivity and assessing specificity to avoid off-tumor toxicities and can be used to rationally designing dual CARs. In addition, candidate target expression can be explored in cancer cell lines using the expression data for the Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia. To our best knowledge, CARTAR is the first website dedicated to the systematic search of suitable candidate targets for CAR therapy. CARTAR is publicly accessible at https://gmxenomica.github.io/CARTAR/.
Insights
This study introduces CARTAR, a novel website for identifying optimal targets for chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) therapy. CARTAR aids in selecting tumor-associated antigens for effective and safe cancer treatment.
Area of Science:
- Immunology
- Oncology
- Bioinformatics
Background:
- Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) therapy represents a significant advancement in cancer treatment, utilizing engineered immune cells to target cancer.
- The selection of appropriate CAR targets is critical for therapeutic efficacy, safety, and specificity, necessitating careful analysis of tumor-associated antigens.
- Existing methods for CAR target identification can be labor-intensive and may not fully leverage comprehensive genomic and transcriptomic datasets.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and present CARTAR, a comprehensive web-based platform for the systematic identification and analysis of potential CAR therapy targets.
- To provide researchers with tools to pinpoint tumor-associated antigens with high selectivity and assess potential off-tumor toxicities.
- To facilitate the rational design of CAR therapies, including dual CARs, by enabling exploration of target expression in both patient tumors and cell lines.
Main Methods:
- Leveraged large-scale expression data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and the Genotype-Tissue Expression Project (GTEx).
- Integrated data from the Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia (CCLE) to assess candidate target expression in relevant cell line models.
- Developed a user-friendly website (CARTAR) to host these analytical tools for public access.
Main Results:
- The CARTAR platform enables the identification of potential CAR targets by analyzing tumor-specific antigen expression.
- Tools within CARTAR facilitate the assessment of target selectivity and specificity, crucial for minimizing on-target, off-tumor toxicities.
- The website allows for the exploration of candidate target expression across diverse cancer types and cell lines, supporting informed therapeutic design.
Conclusions:
- CARTAR is the first dedicated website for the systematic search of suitable CAR therapy targets, significantly advancing the field of personalized cancer immunotherapy.
- The platform empowers researchers to rationally design more effective and safer CAR therapies by providing comprehensive target identification and validation tools.
- The accessibility of CARTAR is expected to accelerate the development and clinical translation of novel CAR-based cancer treatments.
