Identifying and reprogramming softness-driven cancer stem-like cells overcomes CAR-T cell resistance in solid tumours.

Yunjia Qu Yuxuan Wang Linshan Zhu Fengyi Ma C. Yoon Xinyu Chen Junhang Zhang Carrie Bishop Min Tang Jiaxin Cui Tianze Guo Phuong Ho W. M. Kast Hongquan Xu Qifa Zhou Adam J. Engler Ning Wang Longwei Liu Shu Chien Ying-Xiao Wang

Jul 2026 · Nature Biomedical Engineering · 2 citations · 45 references

Medicine

TL;DR

To render these resistant cells targetable, the mechano-recorder is rewired into a mechano-reprogrammer by replacing the fluorescent output with the clinically validated antigen CD19, enabling softness-responsive cells to be recognized by CD19-directed T cells.

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