Tumour tamed by transfer of one T cell
Menée in vitro et à l'aide d'échantillons de sang, de moelle osseuse ou de ganglions lymphatiques prélevés sur un patient atteint d'une leucémie lymphoïde chronique traitée par lymphocytes CAR-T ciblant CD19 (âge : 77 ans), cette étude montre que le dysfonctionnement du gène TERT2, lié à la présence d'une mutation hypomorphique sur l'un des deux allèles et à l'insertion du transgène codant pour le récepteur antigénique chimérique sur l'autre allèle, améliore l'efficacité du traitement
The use of genetically engineered immune cells to target tumours is one of the most exciting current developments in cancer treatment. In this approach, T cells are taken from a patient and modified in vitro by inserting an engineered version of a gene that encodes a receptor protein. The receptor, known as a chimaeric antigen receptors (CAR), directs the engineered cell, called a CAR T cell, to the patient’s tumour when the cell is transferred back into the body. This therapy can be highly effective for tumours that express the protein CD19, such as B-cell acute leukaemias1,2 and large-cell lymphomas3,4. However, some people do not respond to CAR T cells, and efforts to optimize this therapy are ongoing. In a paper in Nature, Fraietta et al.5 report the fortuitous identification of a gene that positively affected one person’s response to treatment with CAR T cells.
Nature , commentaire en libre accès, 2017