Enhancing chimeric antigen receptor-engineered immune cell therapy with synthetic biology and nanomedicine

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-engineered adoptive cell therapy has garnered much attention as it has been used in conjunction with or as a replacement for traditional cancer treatments. However, its uses, particularly in solid tumors, have been tempered by serious adverse side effects and lackluster clinical results. The following chapters will focus on improving CAR-based therapy with antibody mimetic proteins in place of scFvs (Chapter 1), CAR-NK cells conjugated to chemotherapy-loaded liposomes (Chapter 2), and CAR-NK cells with additional cytokine and suicide switch transgenes (Chapter 3). Synthetic biology and nanomedicine are two areas of biomedical research which can synergize with CAR-related treatments to create safer, more effective cancer therapies.