Patent attributes
The present invention relates to a genetically engineered, CD19-specific chimeric T cell receptor and to immune cells expressing the chimeric receptor The present invention also relates to the use of such cells for cellular immunotherapy of CD9+ malignancies and for abrogating any untoward B cell function. The chimeric receptor is a single chain scFvFc:ζ receptor where scFvFc designates the extracellular domain, scFv designates the VH and VL chains of a single chain monoclonal antibody to CD19, Fc represents at least part of a constant region of an IgG1, and ζ represents the intracellular signaling domain of the zeta chain of human CD3. The extracellular domain scFvFc and the intracellular domain ζ are linked by a transmembrane domain such as the transmembrane domain of CD4. In one aspect, the chimeric receptor comprises amino acids 23-634 of SEQ I DNO:2. The present invention further relates to a method of making a redirected T cell expressing a chimeric T cell receptor by electroporation using naked DNA encoding the receptor.