Patent ID: 8088379

Claim:
A modified T cell receptor (TCR) comprising an amino acid sequence of a wild-type (WT) TCR with no more than three amino acid substitutions located in a complementarity determining region (CDR) 2 of a beta chain of the TCR, wherein the modified TCR retains the antigen specificity of the WT TCR and, as compared to the WT TCR, (i) has an enhanced ability to recognize target cells when expressed by CD4 + T cells and (ii) does not exhibit a decrease in antigen specificity when expressed by CD8 + T cells, and wherein a) the modified TCR has antigen specificity for cancer antigen MART-1, or b) the modified TCR has antigen specificity for cancer antigen NY-ESO-1 and comprises the amino acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 8 with no more than three amino acid substitutions located in the CDR2 of SEQ ID NO: 8.