Improving CART-cell therapy for people with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (T-ALL)

T-ALL is a rare but aggressive type of blood cancer that affects specific white blood cells called T cells. These T cells play an important role in our immune system, fighting off infections. T-ALL can be very hard to treat, especially if chemotherapy doesn’t work and the cancer comes back. A treatment called CART-cell therapy has been life-changing for some patients with the blood cancer called B-cell ALL, but developing CAR T-cell therapy for T-ALL has proved much more difficult.

Dr Maciocia and her research team at University College London have recently discovered a new target for treating T-ALL called CCR9. They will soon begin a clinical trial of a new CAR T therapy aimed at this target. To make the treatment even more powerful, they want to combine CAR T-cells with a biological catalyst called asparaginase. This helps remove a nutrient called asparagine which T-ALL cells need to grow and survive. As healthy T cells are able to make their own asparagine this means this treatment can target cancer cells without damaging the healthy T cells. They will conduct experiments in the lab to test how w effective this treatment is compared to standard CAR-T cells.

If successful, this research could lead to a new, effective treatment for people with T-ALL. By helping to make the CAR-T cells more effective at seeking out and destroying the cancer cells research hope people with T-ALL will remain cancer free. Researchers hope that this approach could also benefit people with other blood cancers and open the door to more effective treatments for thousands of patients in the future.