Anti-cytokine strategies targeting CAR-T cell therapy-induced cytokine release syndrome

Abstract

CAR-T cell therapy is a highly promising therapy, recently developed to treat haematological malignancies. However, many limitations including immunosuppressive microenvironment, cytokine-induced toxicities, neurotoxicity, antigen escape, cell trafficking, and tumour infiltration are still in the way of safely applying this therapy. IL-6 and IL-1 are key players in the cytokine storm, produced by bystander immune cells and CAR-T cells. The secreted cytokines and chemokines can lead to cytokine release syndrome (CRS) and ways to overcome this are being studied. In this review, recent findings on anti-cytokine treatments using monoclonal antibodies or recombinant proteins targeting CAR-T cellinduced cytokine storm will be discussed.