A team of researchers from Barcelona has developed a new material that could make one of the most promising cancer treatments—CAR T cell therapy—more effective and easier to produce.
Their study, published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, shows that a specially designed hydrogel, which mimics the environment inside lymph nodes, can help grow better CAR T cells in the lab.
CAR T cell therapy is a cutting-edge form of immunotherapy in which a patient’s own immune cells are genetically modified to recognize and destroy cancer cells.
These engineered cells, known as CAR T cells (short for chimeric antigen receptor T cells), have already been successful in treating certain types of blood cancers and are being explored for use in other forms of cancer.
However, producing CAR T cells is complicated, expensive, and often results in low yields.
To tackle this problem, researchers from the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC) and the IDIBAPS-Hospital Clínic created a new type of hydrogel made from poly(ethylene glycol) and heparin.
These gels have a sponge-like structure with pores and stiffness similar to real lymph nodes, where T cells naturally become activated and multiply.
When scientists used the gel to grow CAR T cells, they saw a big improvement. The gel helped boost the number of CAR T cells and increased the amount of cancer-targeting receptors on each cell.
Compared to traditional lab methods, the hydrogel produced 50% more CAR-positive cells and doubled the rate at which they multiplied.
Judith Guasch, the lead researcher at ICMAB, explained that the gel works by providing both the right mechanical structure and chemical signals that T cells need to grow and function well.
She believes this method could make CAR T cell therapies cheaper and more accessible to patients by improving efficiency and reducing production costs.
A key part of making CAR T cells involves adding a special gene to the immune cells using a modified virus.
In this study, scientists used computer simulations to show that heparin in the hydrogel helped attract the virus particles closer to the T cells.
This improved the delivery of the gene, increasing the number of successfully modified cells without needing to change the virus itself.
Researcher Jordi Faraudo, who led the simulation work, said this strong interaction between the gel and the virus offers a smarter and simpler way to boost gene delivery during CAR T cell production.
By combining materials science, biology, and computer modeling, this study demonstrates how creating a better environment for cell growth could transform how we manufacture life-saving cancer treatments—bringing hope to more patients around the world.
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Source: KSR.
