[Cell therapy's poster child: Chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy].

Chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cell therapy, which adoptively transfers engineered T cells expressing synthetic receptors to target specific antigens, has achieved great clinical success in treating hematological malignancies. Though FDA has approved two CAR-T products, CAR-T therapy can cause some side effects, such as cytokine release syndrome (CRS), neurotoxicity and B cell aplasia. Meanwhile, lacking tumor specific antigen and the suppressive tumor environment limit the efficacy of CAR-T therapy in solid tumor. This review focuses on the structural components, clinical applications and synthetic biology approaches on CAR-T cell design, and summarizes the challenges and perspectives of CAR-T therapy as a revolutionary cancer immunotherapy.