Protecting the sugar coat on anti-tumor T cells to conceal destruction by tumor microenvironmental landmines

Adoptive cellular therapies, highlighted by the burgeoning area of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy, now offer a promising modality with broad application to both hematological and solid cancers. Anti-CD19 CAR T cell therapy, as an example, is an established treatment option for patients with diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL). However, despite early successes, therapeutic efficacy is limited due to insufficient in vivo persistence and exposure to immunosuppressive signals within the tumor microenvironment (TME).