CER T cell(CERo Therapeutics)

Chimeric engulfment receptors (CERs) were demonstrated to mediate enhanced killing of simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)-infected CD4+ T cells, demonstrating that an innate immune receptor system can be redirected to clear virus-infected cells.HIV specifically triggers the expression of phosphatidyl serine (PS) early in infection not only through a cell death pathway but by a much earlier event where by scramblase enzymes (which redistribute phospholipids on the membrane) are activated in order to promote membrane fusion events required for infection and viral budding.While the CER approach is novel, the mechanism of cell killing has yet to be established.The significance of this new work lies in the demonstrated ability to engineer cells of the adaptive immune system to recognize cellular characteristics normally associated with innate immune cell activity.Future work could use a cascade of these signals to gate effector or regulatory functions that react to a more broadly expressed target cell characteristics that reflect cellular physiol. as opposed to tradition microbial or cancer-associated antigens.Immediate next steps are to test the SIV model presented in vivo to determine if CER-T cells can control SIV infection in an animal model.