Podoplanin as an Attractive Target of CAR T Cell Therapy

• Main Authors: Masazumi Waseda, Shin Kaneko
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-08-01
• Series: Cells
• Subjects: T cell immunotherapy; tumor-specific antigen; chimeric antigen receptor (CAR); cancer-specific monoclonal antibody (CasMab); induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4409/9/9/1971

To date, various kinds of cancer immunotherapy methods have been developed, but T cell immunotherapy is one of the most promising strategies. In general, T cell receptor (TCR) or chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) is used to modify the antigen specificity of T cells. CARs possess an underlying potential with treatment efficacy to treat a broad range of cancer patients compared with TCRs. Although a variety of CAR molecules have been developed so far, the clinical application for solid tumors is limited partly due to its adverse effect known as “on-target off-tumor toxicity”. Therefore, it is very important for CAR T cell therapy to target specific antigens exclusively expressed by malignant cells. Here, we review the application of T cell immunotherapy using specific antigen receptor molecules and discuss the possibility of the clinical application of podoplanin-targeted CAR derived from a cancer-specific monoclonal antibody (CasMab).