Rise of iPSCs as a cell source for adoptive immunotherapy

Hum Cell. 2014 Apr;27(2):47-50. doi: 10.1007/s13577-014-0089-8. Epub 2014 Feb 9.

Abstract

Adoptive T cell transfer is a potentially effective strategy for treating cancer and viral infections. However, previous studies of cancer immunotherapy have shown that T cells expanded in vitro fall into an exhausted state and, consequently, have limited therapeutic effect. One way to overcome this obstacle is to use induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) as a cell source for making effector T cells. In recent years, there have been several reports on generating effector T cells suitable for adoptive immunotherapy. The reported findings suggest that using iPSC technology, it may be possible to stably derive large numbers of juvenile memory T cells targeted to cancers or viruses. In this review, we describe a strategy for applying iPSC technology to immunotherapy and the characteristics of T cells derived from iPSCs. We also discuss how these technologies can be applied clinically in the future.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Cell Differentiation
  • Epitopes
  • Humans
  • Immunotherapy, Adoptive / methods*
  • Neoplasms / immunology
  • Neoplasms / therapy*
  • Pluripotent Stem Cells* / cytology
  • T-Lymphocytes* / immunology
  • T-Lymphocytes* / transplantation

Substances

  • Epitopes