Next frontier in cancer treatment: an iPSC supported CAR-T cell therapies

The spread of cancer and huge number of cancer related deaths has made it imperative for scientist to search new diagnostic, prognostic and treatment tools for its effective management. Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cell (CAR-T) therapy has been brought into limelight as novel treatment strategy for cancer. In this review we briefly introduced the CAR-T therapy highlighting its successful application for various cancers along with the possibility of integrating the induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology with CAR-T technology to overcome its intrinsic limitation. The mechanism of CAR-T technology is based on the isolation of white blood cells through leukapheresis from patients’ blood or healthy donors followed by the isolation of T-cells (a type of immune cells). The isolated T-cells are engineered through using a viral vector or other methods to incorporate the CAR gene and expanded in the lab. This modification enables T cells to distinguish and attack antigens on the surfaces of cancer cells. However, this approach is not without its inherent limitations. CAR-T cell therapy notable limitation is the exhaustible availability of T cells within the donor or patient system, which can restrict the feasibility and effectiveness of therapeutic intervention. A potential solution to this limitation may lie in synergizing CAR-T technology with the induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology. The inherent potential of iPSC technology lies in its ability to provide an endless supply of T-cell resources. A substantial amount of research revealed the production of various human CAR-T cells using iPSC technology. Therefore, such combinatorial approach utilizing CAR-T technology for mounting an immunological attack against cancer with continues supply of T-cells through iPSCs technology can prove revolutionary in designing novel and pragmatic methods for cancer treatment.