Bridging viral immunology and CAR-T therapy: leveraging natural T cell responses to enhance engineered cell therapies

“Success ultimately requires thoughtful clinical trial design that evaluates how...immunoengineered products...perform against exhaustion and TME suppression in comparable patient populations.” Ashling Cannon (Editor, BioInsights) speaks to Catherine Bollard (Chief Research Officer and Senior Vice President, Children’s National Hospital) about translating insights from natural viral antigen-specific T cell responses into improved CAR-T design and clinical performance. They explore how virus-specific T cells demonstrate superior persistence compared to current CAR-T therapies, strategies for preventing T cell exhaustion through TGF-beta resistance, innovative combination approaches merging antigen-specific T cells with CAR-T platforms, and critical regulatory considerations for advancing these therapeutic approaches from bench to clinic.