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Pharma Tech Outlook | Wednesday, December 01, 2021
Fremont, CA:Cellular treatments have changed cancer immunotherapy in the last decade. Following the FDA approval of five chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell treatments, adoptive T cell therapies have been extensively studied in preclinical and clinical stages. The first efforts to adoptive T cell treatment depended on finding and growing tumor-reactive T cells, which use the body's own immune system to fight cancer and viral infection. Primary T cells can be genetically altered to boost their ability to target cancer cells instead of depending on these uncommon T cell populations.
In T cells, several delivery platforms have been investigated, each with specific advantages and limitations that have influenced their use in T cell therapy. Non-viral delivery techniques, such as electroporation, cell squeezing, and nanoparticles, have recently been investigated to improve the safety and efficacy of T cell treatments, in addition to viral transduction.
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Delivery methods for T Cell therapies:
Viral
In classic CAR T cell engineering, viral transduction has been used to enable efficient delivery of the CAR transgene. Adenoviruses and adeno-associated viruses can integrate into the host genome and produce persistent gene expression, but gamma-retroviruses and lentiviruses can only generate transitory expression. Because of their high transduction efficiencies, gamma-retroviruses and lentiviruses are commonly used in the production of CAR T cells.
Electroporation
Electroporation is a technique that uses pulsed high-voltage electrical currents to produce microscopic pores in the cell membrane, allowing nanometer-sized cargo to enter the cell. Electroporation can transport mRNA or plasmid DNA, allowing for gene disruption or replacement. This approach is as efficient as viral transduction and has several advantages, including a higher cargo capacity that allows numerous genes or nucleic acids to be delivered simultaneously. Electroporation has been used to deliver DNA vaccines to muscle and skin cells in vivo, and it is currently being tested in phase I clinical trials for a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine.
Cell Squeezing
Cell squeezing is a microfluidic delivery approach that depends on ex vivo mechanical membrane breakage to have a limited influence on transcriptional responses and no effect on T cell activity. Cell squeezing has been utilized to deliver numerous chemicals to embryonic stem cells and immune cells, including DNA, RNA, and proteins. Dextran molecules were successfully delivered to murine T cells through cell squeezing, indicating that they could be employed in human T cells in the future.
Nanoparticles
Nanoparticles are a new type of gene editing delivery technique that has several benefits over viral, electrical, and mechanical delivery technologies. For delivery to T cells, a variety of NPs has been utilized, including those made of lipid, polymer, or gold. Because of the various platforms available, NPs can carry a wide range of cargos, including DNA, mRNA, siRNA, miRNA, and even mixtures of these nucleic acids. Furthermore, by applying selective surface changes or controlled cargo release in response to T cell receptor activation, these platforms can be tailored for targeted delivery.
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