Chimeric antigen receptor t cells as a living drug for cancer immunotherapy

For remission of cancer, several treatment regimens are employed, starting from surgery to chemotherapy, however, successful outcomes are scarce. Now, the scientific community considers the self-help approach to be more promising in which the patients’ immune cells can be redesigned with new ammunition in the form of an artificial receptor that behaves as a biosensor for precise detection and rapid destruction of tumour cells. The T cells of the vertebrate immune system having intrinsic tumour lysis ability are not adequate for complete removal of cancer cells, therefore, if these cells are somehow equipped with additional artificial receptors without distorting their receptor, can do this job effectively. The newly designed T cells with enhanced killing ability towards tumour cells are considered to be a living drug. Therefore, a gene construct designed to express a single-chain variable fragment (scFv) of a monoclonal antibody directed against tumour specific antigen has been transfected into the T cells derived from the cancer patients to create artificial chimeric receptor T cells. These artificially reconstructed hybrid T cells expressing dual receptor; one of their own T cell receptor (TCR) and the other one immunoglobulin fragment, both complementing each other for tumour regression, are found promising in clinical settings. With sufficient clinical trials, FDA has given its approval as prescribed cancer medicine, the living drug, for restricted use under strict medical supervision. All efforts have been made to elaborate the complex strategy of designing chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell in a simplified manner with supporting basic information for the understanding of professionals not working in this field.