What is CAR T? The technology behind Autolus’ cancer hope

Recent years have seen a new class of cancer therapeutics. Called CAR T, it harnesses the power of a patient’s immune system – specifically their T-cells – to combat their cancer.

T-cells are a type of white blood cell that form part of the body’s immune system – detecting and eliminating abnormal or cancerous cells. However sometimes these cells can evade detection and develop into tumours.

CAR stands for Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CARs) – receptors that have been re-engineered with the tell-tale signature of a patient’s cancer cells, which are unique in each case. By combining these with the activation domains from the T-cell receptor, the T-cell can be rearmed to recognise and kill specific cancer cells. Hence the term CAR T.

Autolus has developed a manufacturing process which can create the new CAR T-cells, and then multiply them so that they are ready to be re-infused into a patient to begin their cancer-fighting job. The company believes that this semi-automated cell manufacturing processes is both the safest and most therapeutically effective approach to manufacturing CAR T-cells.

Obe-cel: Autolus’ breakthrough

Whilst CAR T therapy was proven to be effective in targeting and killing cancer cells, up until recently, the technology had a limitation; T-cells could become exhausted by being bound tightly to the cancer cells, and the mass stimulation of the body’s immune system against the cancer could cause side effects as the cells were destroyed.

Autolus’ approach creates a new kind of CAR T-cell (called obe-cel) which does not bind so tightly to cancer cells so whilst it is still effective in destroying them, the T-cell lives to fight any future emerging cancer cells – making the therapy more effective, whilst and the side effects are reduced considerably.