Tumour-specific ‘alarm system’ improves the efficacy of CAR-T cell therapy

Researchers led by Dr Nadia El Khawanky, Dr Simon Heidegger and Dr Nardine Soliman from the Third Department of Internal Medicine at the Technical University of Munich Hospital (TUM Hospital) have, with funding of 146,000 euros from the Wilhelm Sander Foundation, uncovered key mechanisms by which tumour cells develop resistance to CAR-T cells. The scientists demonstrated that an innate cellular alarm system, which normally detects viral infections, plays a crucial role in determining how susceptible tumour cells are to attack by CAR-T cells. This opens up new approaches to making CAR-T cell therapies effective against solid tumours as well.