The University of Cincinnati Cancer Center announced the launch of a new study funded by a $2.3 million National Cancer Institute (NCI) grant to develop a novel technique to visualize where genetically modified immune cells go after being administered in patients with cancer.
Background
During chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, physicians collect patients’ own immune cells, genetically engineer them to express CARs, and inject them back into the patients to target cancer cells. CAR T-cell therapy has revolutionized treatment for some liquid tumors such as lymphoma and leukemia; however, it has not been as successful when treating solid tumors. Researchers expressed the need for more effective tracking methods.
“Currently we lack a reliable way to track CAR T cells in the body postinfusion, especially in patients with solid tumors,” detailed Nalinikanth Kotagiri, PhD, a researcher at the University of Cincinnati James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy and a member of the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center. “In cases where therapy does not succeed, we cannot confirm if the cells even reached the tumor or were able to persist in those regions,” he added.
Study Methods and Results
In the recent study, the researchers are working to adapt a technique previously developed to image specific pathogens in the lungs. The approach uses specialized contrast agents that bind selectively to bacterial receptors, which then light up during positron emission tomography (PET) scans—with the goal of visualizing immune cells. The researchers genetically engineer CAR T cells to express these same bacterial receptors, enabling the cells to take up the contrast agents and become visible on PET scans.
With this method, the researchers hope to gain insights into the location and persistence of CAR T cells in real time within the body. Since CAR T cells divide and produce new cells over time, this technique may allow the tracking of cell lineage, providing valuable data on the behavior of the modified cells long after injection.
Conclusions
The NCI grant funding will allow Dr. Kotagiri and his colleagues to continue research using this technique in animal models and human solid tumor samples. The additional knowledge of where the cells go and how long they persist in the body could lead to more tailored and responsive treatment regimens—thereby helping physicians to optimize CAR T-cell therapy based on precise cellular behavior.
“By tracking CAR T cells in real time, we gain personalized insights that could inform adjustments in therapy, such as dosing frequency or cell-engineering strategies, offering a unique ‘journey into the body’ of each patient’s treatment response,” Dr. Kotagiri concluded.
Disclosure: The research in this study was supported by the NCI of the National Institutes of Health.
