IGK CAR

IGK CAR (S. Wälchli/B. Caulier):

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) based immunotherapy is coming under the spotlight in the cancer treatment. This is mainly due to the success of CAR T cells targeting B-lymphocyte antigen CD19, which has led to astonishing results in clinical trials. Considering that all B cells express CD19 antigen, CAR-T cells eliminate all B cells, including non-malignant B cells. Therefore, the patients suffer from impaired humoral immune response, specifically B-cell aplasia and hypogammaglobulinemia, which might increase susceptibility to severe infections. Another problem is related to the target itself. Accumulation of data demonstrates the possibility of immune escape by down regulation of CD19 or alternative splicing variant which becomes resistant to standard CD19 CAR. There is therefore a need for alternative targets. Taking into account that most B-cell lymphomas and chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells have a clonally restricted expression of Immunoglobulin (Ig) light chains, either Ig-kappa or Ig-lambda, Ig-kappa+ tumor cells can be targeted while sparing normal Ig-lambda+ B-cells. Hence, Ig-kappa CAR T cells could provide lower on-target toxicity than CD19 CAR T cells and would be expected to improve the life quality of the patients.

You can learn more here.