CAR-T Therapy
T cells are white blood cells that continuously patrol the body in search of abnormal cells, such as infected or cancerous cells. They detect antigens on the surface of abnormal cells using their T cell antigen receptors (TCRs). When they detect antigens, they can kill the abnormal cell and activate other types of cells to trigger an immune response to eliminate the threat.
CAR (Chimeric Antigen Receptor) T therapy is a form of cancer treatment in which T cells are genetically engineered to bind to specific cancer antigens, and then given to the patient via infusion. These cancer antigens cannot usually be recognised by normal T cells, but the engineered CAR T cells can effectively recognise the antigens and therefore kill the cancer cells. Although these therapies can be very effective at first, many patients relapse with cancer cells that have less antigen on their surface (called ‘antigen escape’). One reason why this escape is possible is that CARs are not very sensitive and so are unable to 'see' these new cancer cells. There is an urgent need to increase the sensitivity of CARs to prevent these relapses. More sensitive CARs would also allow CAR T cells to be used in treating a wider variety of cancer antigens that are expressed at low levels.
MatchBio
MatchBio launched in Jan 2024 with a £4.5M investment from Oxford Science Enterprises. The company is using various cutting-edge technologies to engineer CAR-T cells with better sensitivity and specificity. This should make it much harder for cancer cells to escape from CAR T cells by simply lowering their antigens, and this will reduce cancer remission rates. But improved CARs may also prove useful for treating intractable infections and autoimmune disease, and are likely to be the first of many examples where immune cells are modified to benefit human health.
These approaches were developed in Omer and Anton’s Oxford labs with funding from the Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council, and through a Guy Newton Translational Grant. To find out more about Omer and Anton’s research please see their Molecular Immunology Group website.
If you would like to collaborate with MatchBio please visit their website.