{"id":237493,"date":"2026-05-20T15:05:55","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T20:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/05\/cytokine-armored-car-t-cell-therapy-helps-eliminate-aggressive-brain-tumors-in-preclinical-study"},"modified":"2026-05-20T15:05:55","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T20:05:55","slug":"cytokine-armored-car-t-cell-therapy-helps-eliminate-aggressive-brain-tumors-in-preclinical-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/05\/cytokine-armored-car-t-cell-therapy-helps-eliminate-aggressive-brain-tumors-in-preclinical-study","title":{"rendered":"Cytokine-armored CAR-T cell therapy helps eliminate aggressive brain tumors in preclinical study"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/cytokine-armored-car-t-cell-therapy-helps-eliminate-aggressive-brain-tumors-in-preclinical-study2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Scientists at the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have developed a new cytokine-armored CAR-T cell therapy that helps the immune system better attack aggressive brain tumors in mice while reducing dangerous side effects that have long limited immune-based treatments for glioblastoma, one of the deadliest and most treatment-resistant brain cancers.<\/p>\n<p>The therapy works by reprogramming CAR-T cells to release immune-stimulating proteins, called IL-12 and DR-18, that activate the body\u2019s own immune system, strengthening the overall anti-cancer response. In mouse models, the approach improved tumor control, including against cancers made up of mixed cell populations that often escape therapies.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers also found that pairing the treatment with a second <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/news\/2026-03-car-cells-block-key-protein.html?utm_source=embeddings&utm_medium=related&utm_campaign=internal\" rel=\"related\">CAR-T strategy<\/a> targeting VEGF, a protein that drives abnormal blood vessel growth and contributes to swelling in glioblastoma, helped reduce side effects while preserving strong anti-tumor activity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scientists at the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have developed a new cytokine-armored CAR-T cell therapy that helps the immune system better attack aggressive brain tumors in mice while reducing dangerous side effects that have long limited immune-based treatments for glioblastoma, one of the deadliest and most treatment-resistant brain cancers. The therapy works by [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1495,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-health","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237493\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}