[Abstract]

Chimeric Antigen Receptor(CAR) is artificial receptor, in which a tumor antigen-binding antibody is fused with signaling domains of T cells. When the CAR gene is introduced to peripheral blood T cells from tumor patients, a large number of tumor(specific T cells which express CAR molecules(CAR-T cells) are able to be generated in a short period of time. These CAR-T cells are infused back to the patient for T cell mediated tumor eradication. The CAR-T cell therapy had a great success in treatment of the refractory and relapsing acute lymphoblastic leukemia leading to commercial development of several CAR-T cell drugs in the US. However, this remarkable therapeutic efficacy of the CAR-T cells is restricted to blood tumors such as leukemias rather than solid tumor. The solid tumor develops immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment to resist CAR-T cell-mediated killing. Thus, it is mandatory to develop novel ways to enhance functional efficacy of CAR-T cells to overcome tumor-mediated immunosuppression.