Chimeric Antigenic Receptor (CAR) T Cells: A New Immunotherapeutic Strategy

• Autor(a) principal: Cruz, Maria Teresa
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Outros Autores: Mateus, Daniela Marques, Borges, Olga
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.25756/rpf.v11i2-3.219

The development of T cells genetically modified to express a quimeric antigen receptor (CAR) at the surface, has been growing up in last few decades, envolving until now more than three hundred clinical trials in oncology. Expression of CAR allows to direct endogenous T cell anti-tumor activity to a given antigen, resulting in the destruction of a specific target. After promising results in several clinical trials, the Food and Drug Administration approved, in 2017, the first two medicines including CAR T cells – the Kymriah® (tisagenlecleucel), to treat relapsed/refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, from Novartis and the Yescarta® (axicabtagene ciloleucel), to treat B-cell lymphoma non-Hodgkin from Kite Pharma. Although this technology has already four generations, in clinical practice only the second generation is used. This article is focused on the cellular and molecular mechanisms behind the development of CAR T cells, their mechanism of action, potential adverse effects, as well as the clinical application of CAR T cells in oncology and future perspectives of this new cellular therapy.