Scientist of Virginia Commonwealth University have produced Car-T that express the MDA-7 / IL24 protein, improving the effectiveness of the therapy against different types of tumors. These findings were published in the journal “Cancer Research”. The engineering of T lymphocytes to ensure that they produce IL-24 allows cancer cells to be killed regardless of the expression, by the latter, of target molecules. At cellular level, IL-24 binds receptors on the cell surface and causes them to produce and release more copies of the IL-24 protein. In healthy cells the protein is secreted, and no damage occurs, while in cancer cells, MDA-7 / IL-24 causes oxidative stress damage and cell death, not only within the primary tumor but also in metastases. This research describes a novel strategy to overcome the antigenic heterogeneity of solid cancers and prevent tumor escape by engineering T lymphocytes to produce a broad-spectrum tumoricidal agent.
