Genetically engineered antigen specificity in T cells for adoptive immunotherapy

Abstract

Antigen specificity has been genetically conferred to human T cells for therapy through the transfer of sequences encoding antigen-specific T-cell receptors (TCRs) or through the antigen-specific antibody-based chimeric antigen receptors (CARs). By either method, the advantage of the adoptive transfer of modified T cells over immunotherapies developed to date such as vaccines or cytokines alone is that T cells have the ability to directly traffic to the site of tumor or infection, to multiply at that site, and to persist in a memory state for months to years.