New Treatment Regime for Aspergillus Mediated Infections

Abstract

In addition, bioengineering of T-cells has opened another approach to treat fungal infections in immunocompromised patients. The pattern recognition receptor such as soluble (Pentraxin-3) and cell bound receptors (Dectin-1) play crucial role in recognition and elimination of fungal pathogens [9]. Thus, the engineering of cell bound receptors on T-cell eliminate the need of MHC representation of antigens and fast removal of pathogens. Kumaresan et al. engineered cytotoxic T-cells to combat Aspergillus infections. They link the innate immune cell receptor (Dectin-1) with T-cells to redirect their specificity for Aspergillus fungus. A chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) was developed to express it on T-cell. Dectin-1, a receptor present on innate immune cells (e.g., macrophages, neutrophils and dendritic cells) was selected, which recognize β-glucan present on fungal cell wall. Kumaresean et al. use the sleeping beauty (SB) transposon/ transposase system to develop such cells. T-cells having these designated chimeric antigen receptors (D-CAR) have specificity for β- glucan and thus lead to damage of Aspergillus hyphae [