As any parent knows, infants are prone to getting respiratory infections. But a new study shows that the infant immune system is stronger than most people
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Short circuiting solid tumors
Two major hurdles in chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy for solid tumors are ensuring specificity to tumor cells without affecting healthy cells and avoiding tumor escape due to antigen loss. To address these challenges, Hyrenius-Wittsten
et al. and Choe
et al. developed synthetic Notch (synNotch)–CAR T cells targeting solid tumor antigens and used them to treat mouse models of mesothelioma, ovarian cancer, and glioblastoma. In both studies, the authors demonstrated that synNotch-CAR T cells were better at controlling tumors than traditional CAR T cells and did not result in toxicity or damage to healthy tissue. These results suggest that synNotch-CAR T cells may be an effective treatment strategy for solid tumors.