Ecto-domain deleted chimeric antigen receptor (dECTO CAR)

The term dECTO CAR (or dEcto-CAR) refers to a negative control construct used in the development and evaluation of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) therapies, such as CAR-T or CAR-NK cells. It is not a therapeutic target or a functional receptor designed to recognize a specific tumor-associated antigen. Instead, dECTO stands for ecto-domain deleted, meaning the extracellular antigen-recognition domain (typically a single-chain variable fragment or scFv) has been removed from the CAR molecule. While the dECTO CAR retains the transmembrane and intracellular signaling domains (e.g., CD3-zeta, 4-1BB, or CD28), it is incapable of binding to any antigen. In research settings, dECTO CAR-expressing cells serve as a baseline to demonstrate that the anti-tumor effects of a functional CAR are specifically mediated by its antigen-binding domain and not by non-specific signaling or the engineering process itself. Consequently, there is no tumor-associated antigen recognized by a dECTO CAR. The term should not be confused with Dectin-1 (CLEC7A), a pattern recognition receptor sometimes used in CAR constructs to target fungal beta-glucans or certain tumor-associated N-glycans.

Other names

dEcto-CAREcto-domain deleted CARNon-targeting CAR controlscFv-deleted CARΔEcto-CAR

None (lacks antigen recognition domain)