A research team from the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, in collaboration with City of Hope, has found a promising way to adapt CAR T cell therapy so that it can fight solid tumors. The researchers engineered CAR T cells to produce a fusion of two proteins: interleukin 12 (IL-12) cytokine, which boosts immune activity, and a programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) blocker, an immune checkpoint inhibitor that prevents cancer cells from turning off the immune attack. In mouse models of prostate and ovarian cancer, the modified CAR T cells launched a localized attack, shrinking the tumor without causing toxicity in other parts of the body. The results were just published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering. The approach enhanced the ability of T cells to penetrate tumors and made the surrounding environment less hostile. It was also safe, with minimal toxicity elsewhere in the body, making it an attractive therapy to translate to patients.

Dr Bianca Moffett at the SAMRC/Wits-Agincourt Unit leads the AfriCAT project, which entails building a first-of-its-kind adaptive testing tool to inform measurement-based mental healthcare for depression and anxiety among adolescents in Africa.

The AfriCAT tool is based on Computerised Adaptive Testing, a novel approach to mental health assessment. Unlike most traditional assessments, which ask a standard set of questions to all users, Computerised Adaptive Tests are based on advanced statistical and machine learning methods, which use a person’s initial responses to select the next best questions. The goal of adaptive testing is to use as few questions as possible while still making an exact assessment, tailored to the individual.