Summary of A16z Podcast Episode: Unleashing CAR T to Combat Agings Sleeper Cells | Journal Club
— Description —
Discover the groundbreaking potential of CAR T therapy, a revolutionary treatment that harnesses engineered T cells to target and eliminate specific cells Explore a recent study showcasing the promising use of CAR T cells in recognizing and eliminating senescent cells Uncover how CAR T therapy goes beyond fighting cancer, offering the potential to restore overall health.
Unleashing CAR T to Combat Agings Sleeper Cells | Journal Club
Key Takeaways
- CAR T is a revolutionary therapy which uses engineered T cells to identify and destroy specific cells
- A recent study demonstrated promise in using CAR T cells to recognize and kill senescent cells
- CAR T therapy has the potential to restore health, not just combat cancer
Introduction
- Jorge Conde (@jorgecondebio), Andy Tran (@andy23tran), and Lauren Richardson (@lr_bio) discuss new research using engineered T cells to attack and destroy harmful senescence that occurs with aging.
What is CAR T Therapy?
- CAR T stands for chimeric antigen receptor T cells
- CAR T is a revolutionary therapy which uses engineered T cells to identify and destroy specific cells
- CAR T therapy is promising but has also been shown to lack potency and precision
- Without specificity, CAR T therapy will kill healthy cells as well as unhealthy ones
- CAR T therapy is primarily used in cancer treatment, leukemias, and lymphomas
The Two Sides of Senescence
- Senescence is a biological process where cells stop dividing and go to sleep
- Senescence has a critically protective function because it stops potentially disease-causing cells
- On the flip side, if too many cells become senescent it can lead to inflammation and disease
- In metabolically healthy conditions, harmful senescent cells do get cleared out by the immune system
- As immune response weakens with age, senescent cells build up and trigger issues
Questions to Consider When Evaluating CAR T Therapy for Senescent cells
- Can we identify biomarkers for senescent cells to properly program CAR T cells with specificity?
- Can CAR T cells be used to clear senescent cells?
- Does the removal of senescent cells have a clinical impact?
Using CAR T Therapy for Senescent Cells
- Recent advances show promise for the use of CAR T as a possible for aging treatments
- New specificity has been developed in CAR T to enable the cells to recognize more than just cancer
- In a new study, researchers used CAR T cells to recognize and kill senescent cells
- Researchers validated their model with cancer then programmed CAR T cells to attack liver fibrosis, atherosclerosis, and diabetes in mice
Future Implications
- Senescence is a key hallmark of aging
- We are seeing a paradigm shift in our use of CAR T therapy: instead of using CAR T therapy to kill cells which shouldn’t be there (i.e., cancer) – we can use CAR T therapy to reengineer aging immune system
- CAR T therapy has the potential for restoring health, not just combating cancer
- With additional research, CAR T therapy could be the standard for treating a wide range of diseases
Limitations of CAR T therapy
- It would take too long to have clinical studies in aging in humans
- High cost
- Difficult scaling: Do T cells need to be specific to the person or can there be a universal donor to increase the ability to scalability?
- There were some negative side effects related to dosing, which have to be resolved before widespread clinical use