An adjuvant for in vivo CAR-T therapy potentiation against solid tumors

A single iCTA dose using aluminum-manganese hydrogel with STING-type I interferon signaling increases CAR+ T-cell abundance by 2-fold in draining lymph nodes and blood.

• Why it matters: In vivo CAR-T can be rapidly engineered and controlled, but durable efficacy against solid tumors remains limited, motivating an approach that leverages the intact immune system.
• What they did: The study used an in vivo CAR-T adjuvant (iCTA) to create a spatially confined antigenic and immunostimulatory niche, then combined it with mRNA-LNP-mediated in vivo CAR-T generation.
• The result: iCTA recruited and reactivated CAR-T cells, enhanced dendritic-cell antigen presentation, mobilized endogenous antigen-specific T-cell responses, increased T and NK infiltration, enriched IFNgamma in tumors, reduced exhaustion-associated T-cell states, and improved tumor regression and survival.

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