T Cell Receptor Therapy
T cell engineering with TCRs is a growing area of immuno-oncology with recent breakthroughs in clinical settings. The T-Cure approach involves identifying and isolating a high avidity TCR which specifically recognizes an intracellular or cell-surface target in solid tumors. This TCR is then typically introduced into a viral vector that can deliver the TCR into the patients’ own T cells in an ex vivo setting. After successful genetic modification of the T cells in this way, T cells are re-introduced into the patient, and render effective killing of tumor cells in vivo.
Once the appropriate TCR is isolated and cloned, a viral vector encoding the designated TCR can be used to transduce T lymphocytes isolated from any patients sharing the same HLA molecule. A patient receives a brief chemo conditioning of peripheral blood, followed by re-infusion of the engineered T cells that identify and bind to tumor-derived peptides displayed by the patient’s HLA molecules, thereby triggering an immune response and killing the cancerous cells.
