Current global trends in the development of CAR-T therapy

Abstract

 The most drastic progress in recent cancer therapy is the success of immunotherapy against conventional treatment-refractory cancers, which is demonstrated by CD19 specific chimeric antigen receptor gene-modified T cells (CD19 CAR-T) against refractory B-lymphoid blood cancers and immune check point inhibitors against various kinds of refractory solid cancers. Realistically speaking, CD19 CAR-T itself is facing not a few clinically important hurdles, such as cytokine release syndrome, neural toxicity, disease relapse after CAR-T therapy and so on. Within this context, global actions in CAR-T development are now aiming at brushing up the proven clinical efficacy of CD19 CAR-T and the extended applicability mainly focusing on solid cancers. To this end, modification of CAR gene construct has solely been centered hitherto. Currently, novel strategies dealing with immune cells to which CAR-gene transduced has opened a door to manufacturing “Off-the-shelf CAR-T drug”, which will have to be an ideal form of CAR-T drug. Viewing from these points, here in this article, we would like to overview the current global situation of CAR-T development.