Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy

Why in news?

• Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy (CAR T-cell therapy) is used to treat specific types of blood malignancies, and it is also being researched for other cancers.

What are T-Cells?

• T cell, also known as T lymphocyte, is a type of leukocyte (white blood cell) that plays an important role in the immune system.
• T cells are one of two primary types of lymphocytes, the other being B cells, that determine the specificity of the immune response to antigens (foreign substances) in the body.

About Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy:

• T-cell therapy is a sort of treatment in which a patient's T cells (a type of immune system cell) are genetically modified in the laboratory to attack cancer cells.
• In other words, T-cell transfer therapy is an immunotherapy that improves the ability of our own immune cells to fight cancer.
• Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is one among the two types of T-cell transfer therapy. The other being Tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) therapy.

Add ons:

• Under the government programme - Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (INSPIRE), Department of Science & Technology (DST) is working on an Alternative Anti-Cancer Therapy (Anti-Angiogenic) using transgenic zebrafish.

PRACTICE QUESTION

Consider the following statements:

1. T cell is a type white blood cells

2. T-cell transfer therapy is an immunotherapy that improves the ability of our own immune cells to fight cancer

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

                        C

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