Oncology

CAR T Cell Therapy Services

Immunotherapy has become a brand new avenue of cancer therapy, independent of surgery, radio- and chemo-therapy. One of  supply partners, Rockland, is making available its expertise for production of CAR-modified T and other immune cells using both viral and non-viral transfection methodologies.

Figure 1. A typical CAR T cell therapy involves four basic steps. (1) A patient or donor is leukapheresed to isolate peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). (2) These cells are manipulated to express CAR by gene transfection. (3) CAR-expressing cells are differentiated into effector immune cells and expanded to sufficient number in vitro. (4) The CAR effector cells are then introduced into the patient. This is frequently done in conjunction with either chemo or radio therapy.

The basic CAR design consists of two fundamental domains: the extracellular antigen binding portion and the intracellular signaling portion. The antigen-binding domain is commonly composed of a single-chain variable fragment (scFv) derived from a monoclonal antibody (mAb). Common intracellular signaling domains include CD3ζ, CD28, 4-1BB and OX40.

CAR T Cell Therapy Services Offered

1. Cell-specific isolation, modification and expansion
2. CAR effector cell in vitro and in vivo functional analyses

Figure 2. Generations of CAR design. CAR is composed of extracellular antigen-binding domain scFv) and intracellular signaling domains, linked by a hinge and a transmembrane domain. The CD3ζ (red triangle) confers the cytotoxic effector function of CAR-T cells. CD28 (pale blue circle) is a co-stimulatory domain that is important for T cell proliferation and cytokine secretion. 4-1BB (yellow oval) is another co-stimulatory domain that promotes T cell survival and in vivo T cell persistence.