/ News, Research
Advancing T Cell Therapy for EBV-Related Diseases (Khanna Lab)
T cell therapies offer significant potential in treating hematological cancers, viral infections, and autoimmune diseases. During differentiation, T cells evolve from stem cell memory T cells (TSCMs) to more differentiated forms, with TSCMs demonstrating superior proliferation and persistence. These properties make TSCMs particularly valuable in adoptive T cell therapies to treat cancer, including those using chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells, engineered T cell receptor (TCR) T cells, and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) while their potential for virus-driven diseases is scarcely explored. Adoptive transfer of conventional EBV-specific cytotoxic T cells (CTLs) often results in partial remission, with response rates varying between 30% to 75%, depending on the EBV-associated disease and patient condition.
Now, researchers from Basel and Zürich, led by first author Darya Palianina from the Khanna lab, have developed a new method to enhance adoptive T cell therapy (ACT) for treating EBV-driven tumors. By creating a protocol that expands TSCMs targeting EBV, the team achieved superior results in controlling tumor growth and maintaining long-term T cell persistence. EBV-specific TSCMs showed better tumor infiltration, in vivoproliferation, and a broader immune response against EBV compared to previous approaches. This advancement could lead to more effective treatments for EBV-related diseases, including cancers, offering a new generation of cell therapies with improved outcomes.
Congratulations to the researchers for this achievement, which underscores the potential of TSCMs in enhancing the effectiveness of T cell therapies for challenging viral infections and cancers.