CAR-T therapy has helped heal blood cancers like acute lymphoblastic lymphoma for several years now, but with breakthrough new science, the treatment is proving to be safer and more effective than ever before. If you’re not familiar with this innovative form of cell therapy, you should know that it uses a patient’s own white blood cells to fight cancer. The white blood cells are extracted and modified in a laboratory to contain a chimeric antigen receptor, or CAR. Once released back into the body, these modified CAR-T cells attach to cancerous cells and blast them with deadly cytotoxins.
Dangers of Traditional CAR-T Cell Therapy
Unfortunately, a serious side-effect of CAR-T therapy has always been the chance the patient will develop Cytokine Release Syndrome, or CRS. CRS is marked by serious symptoms that include:
- Flu-like symptoms
- Irregular heartbeat
- Confusion
- Decreased lung function
- Edema
- Eventual organ failure
These side-effects occur as a result of the sudden release of large amounts of cytokines into the body. While not every patient who is undergoing immunotherapy will develop CRS, many do. And in severe situations, it can become fatal, causing the body’s major organs, such as the heart, brain, lungs, liver, and kidneys, to stop functioning.
How New Science Makes CAR-T Therapy Safer and More Effective
But with new research, comes better methods. And now scientists have found a way to toggle the release of cytokines on and off just like flipping a switch. This enables CAR-T cells to rest in between periods of attacking cancer cells, and it gives patients time to recover from some of the more uncomfortable side-effects of immunotherapy. The toggle switch comes in the form of an oral medication called grazoprevir that, until now, was used primarily to treat hepatitis. The medication activates the modified cells inside the body, and once it wears off, the cells become inactive and stop releasing the toxic cytokines. This means that now scientists can customize CAR-T cell therapy to fit the individual needs of each patient. This new method is called SNIP CAR-T, and it has shown optimistic results in laboratory mice.
Who Discovered SNIP Car-T?
Researchers at Stanford Medicine are leading the way in SNIP CAR-T protocol. Though CAR-T therapy has been approved by the FDA to treat certain types of childhood cancers since 2017, SNIP CAR T has, to date, only been tested on lab mice. But since the drug they’re using to turn the modified cells on and off is one already approved by the FDA, the scientists involved hope to begin clinical trials on humans within the next two years. Leading the charge is Crystal Mackall, MD, who is the senior author of the study published in Cell and graduate student Louai Labeniah, lead author, along with a host of other Stanford researchers.
With these new innovations, it’s hoped that more and more types of cancer will be cured by CAR-T cell therapy, and that fewer patients will experience the uncomfortable side-effects that often coincide with this form of immunotherapy.
