Cancer immunotherapy is a group of modern therapeutic approaches for
targeted treatment of malignancies. CAR-T cell therapy is a very successful
immunotherapeutic strategy where a genetic material for the CAR receptor is inserted
into the patient's lymphocytes and then reinfused back into the body. CAR-T cells are
able to recognize tumour antigen, trigger T-cell activation, and subsequently kill cancer
cells. While CAR-T cells are already approved for clinical use, their success is limited to
certain blood cancers. We developed a new design of CAR receptor that is based on the
CD3ε chain, through which we tried to achieve cooperation between CAR and TCR. We
designed and prepared five CAR constructs and showed their surface expression. We
confirmed that the receptors were able to trigger T-cell activation upon stimulation with
the target antigen. Interaction between CAR and TCR was more pronounced in new
designs of CARs than in conventional CARs. We have also started developing a cell line
with knocked-out CD3ε gene for studying the mechanism of TCR-CAR interaction.
CARs based on the CD3ε chain will serve as a platform for further development and
optimisation of CAR-T cell therapies.
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