What can be done to improve CD8+ T cell therapy?
With the above caveats, one might be prompted to pursue therapeutic avenues other than adoptive T cell transfer. However, the potential to successfully treat an infection or malignancy using highly specific effectors with minimal side effects remains too attractive to disregard. For this to evolve from an investigational tool to a viable form of therapy, improvements need to be made. First, choosing antigenic targets that are immutable and essential for survival of the infectious agent or malignant cell would reduce the potential for selecting antigen-loss variants. Currently, there are many strategies being employed that merge analysis of differential gene expression with antigen discovery, making it more likely that such desirable targets will be identified. Areas with potential for immediate improvement include both the methods for in vitro generation of large numbers of highly active CD8+ T cells and modulation of the in vivo environment to more effectively support the transferred
