Figure 3.

Developmental stages of chimeric antigen receptors. The first double chain chimeric receptors were engineered to customize the variable T cell receptor (TCR) domain by using V_H and V_L chains of antibodies (orange and bright blue boxes) fused to the constant regions of the TCR α- and β-chains (green and blue boxes). They mimicked the TCR in appearance and functionality. Activation relies on association with intracellular CD3ζ (yellow boxes), CD3γ, CD3δ, and CD3ε chains (purple boxes). The first generation of CARs combined the antigen recognizing scFv directly with the CD3ζ-signalling domain in one construct overcoming expression difficulties by the tremendous construct length of double chain chimeric receptors. Cytotoxicity, proliferation, cytokine secretion, and persistence of CARs were increased in second and third generation CARs by the addition of further costimulatory domains (CS1 and CS2) such as CD27, CD28, CD134, or 4-1BB. Introduction of T cell redirected for universal cytokine-mediated killing (TRUCKs) or fourth generation CARs increased the flexibility in CAR design for specific challenges even further, enabling local expression of cytokines such as IL-12, which are toxic in high concentrations. Fifth generation CARs, as fourth generation CARs, are based on second generation CARs. The individual antigen response is complemented by activation of intracellular domains of cytokines (dark blue box) e.g., IL-2Rβ, which induced signal transduction in the STAT3/5 pathway. Another group of artificial antigen receptors, gaining increased interest in recent years, are synNotch receptors. These receptors use the cleavage process after Delta-Notch binding and enable an unlimited variety of responses (green box) after target recognition such as cell fate determination with transcription factors and expression of selected cytokines or therapeutic antibodies. In this way, they bring the potential of immune cells as “living drugs” a big step forward.