The Promise of CAR T Cell Therapy Many strategies that train the immune system to recognize and attack cancer are in development or undergoing clinical trials (1). However, these strategies have the potential to cause life-threatening consequences, as evidenced by the latest report of the death of another patient receiving CAR T cell therapy (2). CAR … Read more
Researchers discover loss-of-function mutations in TLR7 as a genetic basis for severe COVID-19.
Crowther and colleagues screened clones of T cells isolated from a healthy donor and identified a clone (MC.7.G5) that recognized and killed many different types of cancer cells, including cells from solid tumors. When mixed with lung, melanoma, leukemia, breast, colon, prostate, bone, or ovarian cancer cell lines, MC.7.G5 released tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and … Read more
Researchers discovered that injecting inactive flu virus directly into solid tumors triggered a systemic anti-tumor immune response. Thus, seasonal flu vaccines or other inactivated virus vaccines could be repurposed as agents that convert immune “cold” tumors into immune hot ones. Newman and colleagues found that influenza infection, which is respiratory virus that infects the lungs, … Read more
