Research Techniques Made Simple: CAR T Cell Therapy

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) and chimeric autoantibody receptor T cell therapy hold great promise in the treatment of cancer and autoimmune disease, respectively. This powerful technique involves genetically engineering T lymphocytes to enable selective destruction of disease-causing cells. In the current approach, a patient's T cells are genetically engineered to express an antigen-specific antibody fragment fused to activating cytoplasmic T cell signaling domains. Following ex vivo activation and genetic modification of a patient's own T cells, the individually-tailored CAR T cells are then infused into the patient for the selective destruction of cells bearing the targeted antigen.