Researchers from Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and its Ludwig Center, along with the Lustgarten Laboratory and the Bloomberg-Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, have designed a novel type of cell called co-stimulatory synthetic T-cell receptor and antigen receptor (Co-STAR), which has shown potential when treating cancer.
In the study published in Science Translational Medicine, researchers tested Co-STAR against human cancer cells growing in test tubes and in mice.
Researchers combined genetic components of four types of cells that the body uses to defend against invaders to produce T-cell receptors from T cells, antibodies from B cells, MyD88 from monocytes and CD40 from dendritic and other cells to produce the Co-STAR cells.
“Our goal was to combine some of the advantages of the CAR format with those of the natural T-cell receptor on T cells, supplemented with additional signalling boosters, so that they could fight cancers more effectively,” said lead study author, Brian Mog, internal medicine resident at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
After multiple rounds of engineering and testing their receptors in model cancer cell lines in test tubes and later in mouse models of cancer, the team developed the final Co-STAR T cells, which were able to continuously kill human cancer cells in test tubes.
In mouse models, Co-STARS successfully induced a robust and long-lasting proliferation of T cells to induce remission and often cure human cancer cells growing in mice.
In 2020, it was estimated that there were more than 18 million new cases of cancer worldwide, according to Cancer Research UK, with the four most globally prevalent being breast, lung, bowel and prostate cancers, accounting for more than four in ten of all cancers diagnosed.
Most recently, in the UK, cancer doctors and experts, including King’s College London, revealed the ten biggest cancer challenges facing the new UK government in a new policy review published in the Lancet Oncology and established several recommendations to improve the survival, quality of life and experience of cancer patients in the UK.
