Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Stem Cells. Aug 26, 2015; 7(7): 1022-1038
Published online Aug 26, 2015. doi: 10.4252/wjsc.v7.i7.1022
Adoptive immunotherapy for acute leukemia: New insights in chimeric antigen receptors
Maël Heiblig, Mohamed Elhamri, Mauricette Michallet, Xavier Thomas
Maël Heiblig, Mohamed Elhamri, Mauricette Michallet, Xavier Thomas, Hematology Department, Lyon-Sud Hospital, 69495 Pierre Bénite cedex, France
Author contributions: Heiblig M designed and wrote this review; Elhamri M, Mauricette M and Thomas X provided a critical revision of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Xavier Thomas, MD, PhD, Hematology Department, Lyon-Sud Hospital, 165 chemin du Grand Revoyet, 69495 Pierre Bénite cedex, France. xavier.thomas@chu-lyon.fr
Telephone: +33-04-78862235 Fax: +33-04-72678880
Received: September 5, 2014
Peer-review started: September 6, 2014
First decision: December 17, 2014
Revised: May 3, 2015
Accepted: June 18, 2015
Article in press: June 19, 2015
Published online: August 26, 2015
Processing time: 355 Days and 16.5 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Leukemia cells ultimately escape to the immune system, due to various mechanisms such as limited availability of tumor specific T cells or down-regulation in major histocompatibility complex expression. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell technology redirects immune reactivity towards a broad variety of chosen antigens in a human leukocyte antigen-independent manner. Recent introduction of co-stimulatory domains in the CAR construct enhances significantly in vitro and in vivo expansion and persistence of these genetically modified T cells. First clinical trials, especially with anti-CD19 CAR T cells, report promising results in acute lymphoblastic leukemia.