Mon, December 16, 2024
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New "Molecular GPS" Allows Immune Cells To Kill Brain Cancer Without Harming Healthy Tissue

The article from SciTechDaily discusses a groundbreaking development in cancer treatment where researchers have engineered a new molecular "GPS" system to guide immune cells specifically to brain cancer cells, sparing healthy brain tissue. This innovative approach utilizes CAR T-cell therapy, where T cells are genetically modified to express chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) that target specific proteins on cancer cells. The key advancement is the use of a molecule called synNotch, which acts like a molecular switch, activating only when it binds to a specific antigen on cancer cells. This activation then triggers the expression of another CAR that targets a second antigen, ensuring that the T cells attack only the cancer cells. This dual-targeting strategy significantly reduces the risk of off-target effects, a common issue in previous CAR T-cell therapies where healthy cells could also be attacked. The study, published in Nature Communications, demonstrates this method's potential in treating glioblastoma, one of the most aggressive and hard-to-treat brain cancers, by effectively killing tumor cells while leaving normal brain tissue unharmed.

Read the Full SciTech Daily Article at:
[ https://scitechdaily.com/new-molecular-gps-allows-immune-cells-to-kill-brain-cancer-without-harming-healthy-tissue/ ]