CAR-T CELLS EXPLAINED

To make a CAR-T cell, doctors remove some of a patient’s T-cells using a process similar to dialysis. In a lab, they use a gene-editing technique, such as infecting the T-cells with a modified virus, to add in a new receptor (A). This new receptor, called a chimeric antigen receptor, or CAR, is like a key that matches a very specific lock (B) on the surface of cancer cells.

When doctors return the mutant T-cells to the patient, they flow through the body, attach to the cancer’s lock, and start trying to kill it the same way they would a cell infected by a virus. First, the T-cells release a chemical called perforin, which makes a little hole in the cancer cell. Then the T-cells release cytotoxins, which flow in through the hole until the cancer cell dies.