BioCentury
ARTICLE | Translation in Brief

Sustained delivery

How modified T cells could enable stable, long-term therapeutic protein delivery

May 15, 2018 6:35 PM UTC

Researchers from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and Baylor College of Medicine have developed a new method for stable, long-term delivery of therapeutic proteins using antigen-specific T cells whose genomes have been modified with a transposon system. The approach could enable more regulated dosing than recombinant protein therapies delivered via viral vectors.

In a study published in Nature Communications in April, the researchers engineered two mouse CD8+ T cell lines: one to deliver a therapeutic protein and another, optional line that could be used as a booster vaccine to enhance the first cell line’s engraftment and persistence. They took the latter step because previous studies have shown T cells modified to express tumor-specific antigens and dendritic cell-activating molecules can augment other T cell responses to cancer. ...