SnNotch: Developing a Customizable Cell -Based Cancer Screening System for CAR Macrophage Therapy Applications

Overview

Cancer is characterized by abnormal cell growth and is a leading cause of death worldwide. Traditional treatment options include surgery and chemotherapy, but the treatment success rate remains low for solid tumors. Recently developed Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) Tcell therapy engineers a patient’s own T- cells to fight cancer cells. Current CAR-Tcells exhibit limited ability to reach the tumor environment, while macrophages can easily submerge into the cancer microenvironment. SnNotch receptors are bioengineered cell-surface receptors that senses a target antigen and an immune response against cancer cells. In this study, SnNotch receptors were designed, transfused into monocytes and macrophages, and co-cultured with leukemia and kidney cancer cells. Th e goal of the study was to engineer the SnNotch macrophages to recognize tumor cells with both the CD19 and eGFP antigens. Signaling efficiency was determined by flow cytometry and immunofluorescence microscopy. Results show that 86% and 76% of SnNotch macrophages transmit antigen signal when co -cultured with kidney cancer and leukemia cells respectively. Fluorescent microscopy data reveals that monocytes signal more efficiently in solid tumors while macrophages signal more efficiently in liquid tumors. In this study, a novel, customizable SnNotch receptor was engineered for SnNotch CAR Macrophage Therapy. For future research, target antigens can be replaced with other immunological diseases targets such as multiple sclerosis and systemic lupus erythematosus. This research increases the efficacy of CAR macrophage therapies and advances recent cancer therapies by providing customizable cellular therapies to efficiently and accurately target cancer cells.

Competition history

• JSHS 2024 Category not listed

Resources

• National JSHS abstract book ↗

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