UCLA Team’s Breakthrough Platform Mimics Nature to Supercharge T Cell Immunotherapy

Imagine a world where your own immune cells are transformed into cancer-fighting superheroes. This is the promise of CAR-T cell therapy, a groundbreaking treatment that’s already saving lives.

In this therapy, patients’ own immune cells are collected, genetically engineered so that they specifically target cancer cells, then returned to the body. The result is a potent new option for battling blood cancers. However, as with any superhero journey, the process of harnessing this incredible power comes with its own set of challenges.

One such hurdle: Current methods for activating T cells don’t resemble closely enough the natural environment in which they interact with another key population of immune cells — a connection crucial for activating T cells and ramping up their ability to fight cancer.

In a recent Nature Nanotechnology study, a UCLA team has unveiled a powerful tool to overcome this limitation. Their new platform combines a flexible material called graphene oxide with antibodies to closely mimic the natural interactions between immune cells. The investigators found that this mimicry shows a high capacity for stimulating T cells to reproduce, while preserving their versatility and potency.

The advance could make CAR-T cell therapy more effective and accessible, while also driving progress for other emerging treatments.

“Our interface bridges the gap between the laboratory and actual conditions inside the body, allowing us to gain insights much more relevant to real-world biological processes,” said co-corresponding author Yu Huang, the Traugott and Dorothea Frederking Professor of Engineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering and a member of the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA, or CNSI. “Beyond T cell therapies, we can apply this technology to a variety of fields including tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.”