2025
August
Overcoming dysfunctional CAR-T in pancreatic cancer
August 27, 2025
Characterized by very poor outcomes and an immune-cold tumor phenotype, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) poses a major challenge for immunotherapy treatment. Aznar and Good et al. performed a phase I study assessing the safety and feasibility of a mesothelin (MSLN)-targeting CAR T cell product (huCART-meso) and performed subsequent analyses of the infused cells...
Agonist anti-CD40 shows promise in a phase 1 clinical trial
August 20, 2025
CD40 agonists, which promote maturation and activation of antigen-presenting cells (APCs), have consistently shown promise in preclinical research, but have shown limited efficacy in clinical trials, often due to toxicity. To improve the safety and efficacy of CD40 agonists, Osorio, Knorr, and Weitzenfeld et al. developed 2141-V11 – a human IgG1 anti-CD40 agonistic...
Lymph node T cells lead the antitumor charge, while tumor-resident T cells fall short
August 13, 2025
While CD8+ T cells with various stemness, tissue residency, and exhaustion features have been implicated in antitumor responses and ICB efficacy, the exact contribution of each subset remains poorly understood. Wijesinghe, Rausch, et al. used multiple genetic murine models to investigate the functionality and relation to ICB efficacy of various T cell subsets...
Novel binder designs mimic TCR specificity for pMCH-I
August 6, 2025
T cell receptors (TCRs) are highly specific for peptide–MHC (pMHC) complexes, allowing for recognition of specific intracellular antigens, and making them extremely useful in targeting specific target cells. However, TCRs that target specific pMHCs are often difficult to identify. In lieu of identifying TCRs, Liu, Greenwood, Bonzanini, et al. set out to identify...
