This research introduces a novel ferritin aggregation cell engager (FACE) designed to enhance CAR T cell therapy for patients with refractory leukemias. By utilizing the high expression of CD71 receptors on both cancer and therapeutic cells, this platform stabley anchors to CAR T cells to improve their binding strength and sensitivity to low-density antigens. This approach successfully overcomes antigen modulation, a common cause of treatment relapse, without requiring complex genetic re-engineering of the CAR itself. Additionally, the system can be loaded with chemotherapeutic drugs (FACED) to provide a secondary, antigen-independent attack against leukemia cells that have completely lost target expression. Validation across various patient-derived xenograft models demonstrates significantly improved survival rates and a reduced risk of cytokine release syndrome. Ultimately, this universal and flexible engineering strategy offers a promising clinical pathway to treat diverse and aggressive hematological malignancies.

References:

• Li F, Hu Y, Wang Y, et al. Ferritin aggregation cell engager for CAR T avidity engineering against refractory leukemias[J]. Cell, 2026.