Recombinant T-cell receptors: An immunologic link to cancer therapy

Cytotoxic T cells can specifically kill target cells that express antigens recognized by the T-cell receptor. These are membrane-bound proteins that a re not ubiquitous and thus are difficult to purify and study at the protein level. The advent of recombinant DNA technology has facilitated these obje ctives, thereby enabling researchers to gain valuable information about maj or T-cell receptor characteristics. Genetic manipulation of T-cell receptor s has also been used to exploit specificity of killing by cytotoxic T lymph ocytes, which represents an attractive feature for therapeutic purposes. Th e objective of this review was to provide an overview of the major strategi es adopted to genetically manipulate T-cell receptors.