TYROSINE KINASE CHIMERAS FOR ANTIGEN-SELECTIVE T-BODY THERAPY

Protein tyrosine kinases (PTKs) transmit activation signals in almost every cell type, including immune effector cells. The aberrant or cons titutive activation of PTKs can often cause neoplastic transformation. The use of chimeric receptors based on PTKs may enable us to elucidat e the signaling pathways of normal immune cells and other cell types, and the abnormal events that can lead to malignant transformation. In this review, we focus on antigen specific chimeric PTKs in which antib ody-derived scFv are joined to the Syk family of PTKs. These chimeric receptors yielded reagents that can selectively redirect immune effect or cells and specifically activate them to produce cytokines or lyse t heir target. The advantages of using such PTK-based chimeras to redire ct lymphocytes to tumor targets and their potential as an immunotherap eutic approach to malignant disease is discussed. (C) 1998 Elsevier Sc ience B.V.