CAR T

A classical chimera

More than likely you have brushed up against “immunotherapy” and its faithful companion (CAR T therapy) in the news.  Being the curious person you are, no doubt you have asked yourself what CAR T stands for.  Well, the CAR part stands for “chimeric antigen receptor”, and the T part refers to that part of the immune system called T cells (sometimes called “killer T cells” for their ferocious role in the body’s defense system).

Did that help?  Well, maybe not, so I here is an official explanation: “Chimeric antigen receptors are engineered receptors which graft an arbitrary specificity onto an immune receptor cell”. 

Did that do the trick?  Well, hell, of course not.  Who do these people think they’re writing for – Watson and Crick, or maybe Linus Pauling?  Here is all I know:  CAR T therapy is called “chimeric” because it grafts some new stuff onto the patient’s own T cells.  This gives it “specificity”, which means that these T cells now can recognize a particular kind of cancer cell, and gobble it up.  Two (very expensive) drugs are now approved for blood cancers.  One researcher describes these engineered T cells as Pac Men, swimming through the blood stream and zapping the bad guys.

Anyway, CAR T technology is being modified to attack solid tumors, including ovarian.  Some of this work is going on at Fred Hutch.  If you use the link below to follow up on CAR T, soon you will know more than me

Not that that’s saying much.

https://ovariancancernewstoday.com/2017/10/20/ovarian-cancer-gene-therapy-specialist-to-share-more-than-a-million-dollars-in-grants/