Recent Advances in the Exploitation of Cell Surface Receptors for Targeted Cell Therapies

The past decade has witnessed significant expansion in both preclinical and approved receptor-targeted therapeutic cell modalities. These include immune cells engineered to express chimeric antigen receptors (CARs), and bispecific immune cell engagers developed for the treatment of cancer, autoimmune disorders, infectious diseases, and metabolic disorders. Although these approaches have produced remarkable clinical outcomes, cell therapy-associated off-target toxicities continue to present significant safety challenges. This review provides a framework for the rational design of optimized cell therapies aimed at enhancing therapeutic efficacy while minimizing adverse side effects. With the state-of-the-art advances in genomic profiling, artificial intelligence-driven design tools, and scalable manufacturing technologies, the outlook for next-generation receptor-targeted cell therapies is highly promising.