Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) - T Cells Based Cancer Immunotherapy: Harnessing the Potential of Nanobiotechnology

Chimeric antigen receptor CAR-T cell therapy represents a major advancement in personalized cancer treatment. This treatment involves ex vivo cell multiplication and re-infusion back into the patient after genetically altering the patient’s T cells to express a CAR specific for a tumour antigen (TA). Five CAR-T cell therapies have been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treating several solid tumours. The prominent hindrance in CAR-T cells is the paucity of TA expressed precisely and uniformly in the immunosuppressive tumour microenvironment (TME). One of the main obstacles is the scarcity of TAs that is precisely and uniformly expressed within the immunosuppressive TME. Additionally, the absence of a universal CAR protein that can recognize TAs on the surface of solid tumours, as well as on suppressive immune cells and soluble inhibitors in the TME, poses a challenge. The survival and proliferation of CAR-T cells in vivo are crucial for their therapeutic effectiveness. To overcome these significant obstacles in CAR-T cell-based immunotherapy, nanobiotechnology has been emerging as a promising strategy. This strategy can produce T cell activation and proliferation and elicit an immune response against cancer cells. In this chapter, we discuss recent nanobiotechnology-based strategies in CAR-T cell manufacturing to expand CAR-T cells’ clinical efficacy and safety in different cancers.