Peptide-Activated Lymphocytes

Peptide-Activated Lymphocytes (PAL) are a form of personalized, autologous adoptive cell therapy developed by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The therapeutic process begins with the collection of a patient's peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), from which antigen-presenting cells (APCs) are isolated. These APCs are pulsed *in vitro* with synthetic peptide fragments representing specific mutations (neoantigens) identified in the patient's tumor, such as mutant p53 or KRAS. The pulsed APCs are then used to activate and expand mutation-specific T-lymphocytes from the patient's own immune repertoire. Once expanded to therapeutic numbers, these specifically primed T cells are reinfused intravenously into the patient, often following a lymphodepleting chemotherapy regimen and accompanied by high-dose interleukin-2 (IL-2) to enhance their survival and cytotoxic activity against cancer cells expressing the target mutations.

Other names

Autologous peptide-activated lymphocytesNCI-PALNeoantigen-specific T cells