Part of the reason for CAR T cells’ astonishing success in B-cell cancers is that B cells are astonishingly easy to replace. CAR T cells are specific, yes. But they are not specific to tumor cells. They are specific to their target antigens. In the case of Yescarta (axicabtagene ciloleucel, Gilead Sciences Inc.) and Kymriah (tisagenlecleucel, Novartis AG), the first two clinically approved T cells, that target is CD19, which is expressed on B-cell precursors. And when it is successful, the treatment leaves patients without any B cells at all.
Interactions between the gut microbiome and immune system influence cancer immune surveillance, though the mechanism through which these gut-primed immune cells regulate peripheral antitumor immune response is not well understood. Now, two recent studies in Science and Science Immunology using mouse models and human tissue samples have highlighted a group of intestinal T cells with the gut-homing α4β7 integrin receptors that play a critical role in mediating response to immune checkpoint blockade cancer immunotherapy.
Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has divulged aromatic heterocyclic compounds acting as lysine-specific histone demethylase 1A (KDM1A; LSD1) inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer.
Insilico Medicine IP Ltd. has identified small-molecule inhibitors of ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolase 1 (USP1) reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer.
Researchers from Eutilex Co. Ltd. have presented preclinical data for the novel V-set and immunoglobulin domain-containing 4 (VSIG4)-specific humanized monoclonal antibody, EU-103, being developed as a potential cancer immunotherapy candidate.
Son of sevenless 1 (SOS1) is a guanine exchange factor (GEF) primarily responsible for linking cell-surface receptors to RAS protein activation converting the inactive form of GDP-loaded RAS proteins into the active GTP-loaded RAS. This role together with its function in inhibiting MAPK pathway reactivation suggest that SOS1 may be a therapeutic target to treat KRAS-driven cancers.
A group of scientists from the Center for Stem Cell and Translational Immunotherapy, Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School have developed an antitumor immunotherapy that uses oncolytic viruses and stem cells for the treatment of metastatic brain melanoma.
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