CAR T CELL THERAPY

Why in News?                                                                                                        

The President of India, Smt Droupadi Murmu launched India’s first home-grown gene therapy for cancer at IIT Bombay. As this line of treatment, named “CAR-T cell therapy”, is accessible and affordable, it provides a new hope for the whole of humankind.

What is CAR T Cell Therapy?

• The therapy represents a quantum leap in the sophistication of cancer treatment.
• Unlike chemotherapy or immunotherapy, which requires mass-produced injectable or oral medication, CAR T-cell therapies use a patient’s own cells.
• They are modified in the laboratory to activate T-cells, a component of immune cells, to attack tumours.
• These modified cells are then infused back into the patient’s bloodstream after conditioning them to multiply more effectively.
• As of today, CAR T-cell therapy has been approved for leukaemias (cancers arising from the cells that produce white blood cells) and lymphomas (arising from the lymphatic system).
• In this therapy, the patient’s blood is drawn to harvest T-cells – immune cells that play a major role in destroying tumour cells.
• Researchers modify these cells in the laboratory so that they express specific proteins on their surface, known as chimeric antigen receptors (CAR): they have an affinity for proteins on the surface of tumour cells.
• This modification in the cellular structure allows CAR T-cells to effectively bind to the tumour and destroy it.
• The final step in the tumour’s destruction involves its clearance by the patient’s immune system.
• In CAR T-cell therapy, the immune system is activated when the modified T-cells are reintroduced into the body, which allows a gradual and sustained tumour kill as these cells multiply.