Peer pressure

Research from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) suggests adoptive immunotherapies are compromised by the fact that naïve T cells are pushed to mature too fast by fully differentiated T cells in the same culture, which depletes the therapy of its most potent agents. Now the team is developing ways to block the process and plans to test its first approach in the clinic this year.

Christopher Klebanoff, an assistant clinical investigator working with senior clinical investigator Nicholas Restifo in the surgery branch of NCI's Center for Cancer Research, said the study built on previous observations by their team and others that T cells with more naïve phenotypes are better suited for adoptive immunotherapy than mature cells, which have shorter telomeres and are closer to senescence. ...