BackgroundT-cells attributes for adoptive cell therapy of patients with advanced cancer can be optimized during ex vivo expansion culture. Autologous TCR-engineered T-cells targeting the MAGE-A4 antigen with Specific Peptide Enhanced Affinity Receptors (SPEAR T-cells) have shown promise in the clinic.1 The highly variable leukocyte material obtained from individual patients during apheresis can present a manufacturing challenge for autologous T-cell therapies. The degree of ex vivo expansion and the functional attributes of the expanded T-cell product impact therapeutic efficacy and can be suboptimal for some patient apheresis material. Both TCR and cytokine growth factor signals used for ex vivo T-cell expansion promote robust activation of AKT (Protein Kinase B) signaling, which drives T-cell activation, proliferation, and terminal differentiation. It is hypothesized that inhibition of AKT signaling during T-cell expansion may uncouple proliferation and terminal differentiation, leading to the generation of less differentiated T-cells that may have functional benefit in vivo.2 3MethodsWe evaluated use of an AKT inhibitor during SPEAR T-cell manufacturing using leukocytes from healthy donors and patients with advanced solid cancers.ResultsAKT inhibition resulted in the generation of a more consistent expansion and phenotype of the final T-cell product. This was observed using two SPEAR T-cell constructs, ADP-A2M4 and ADP-A2M4CD8. Ex vivo SPEAR T-cell expansion in the presence of an AKT inhibitor generated CD8+ T-cells that maintained a less differentiated phenotype (based on CCR7+CD45RA+ and CD62L+ expression). AKT inhibition was associated with enhanced antigen-specific responses of SPEAR T-cells in vitro, including effector cytokine production, target-cell killing, ability to proliferate in response to prolonged antigen-stimulation and maintenance of cytotoxic activity following antigen re-stimulation.ConclusionsWe plan to introduce AKT inhibition into the GMP manufacturing process, and evaluate the efficacy of the resulting products in ongoing clinical studies.AcknowledgementsWe are extremely grateful to the patients, who were previously enrolled in our clinical trials, and healthy donors for their consent for R&D studies. This was a collaborative cross-functional project, and we are grateful for the contributions of the following Scientists: Garth Hamilton, Adel Toth, Abigail Kay, Sophie Badie, Josh Griffiths, Kaushik Sarkar, Anoop Chandran.Ethics ApprovalThe experimental study was conducted in accordance with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki and the International Conference on Harmonization Good Clinical Practice guidelines and was approved by local authorities. An independent ethics committee or institutional review board approved the clinical protocol at each participating center. All the patients provided written informed consent before study entry.ReferencesHong DS, Van Tine BA, Olszanski AJ, et al, Phase 1 dose escalation and expansion trial to assess safety and efficacy of ADP-A2M4 in advanced solid tumors. J Clin Oncol 2020;38;A102.Klebanoff C, Crompton J, Leonardi A, et al. Inhibition of AKT signaling uncouples T cell differentiation from expansion for receptor-engineered adoptive immunotherapy. JCI Insight 2017;2:e95103.van der Waart A, van de Weem N, Maas F, et al. Inhibition of Akt signaling promotes the generation of superior tumor-reactive T cells for adoptive immunotherapy. Blood. 2014;124;3490-3500
Novel agents and regimens for hematological malignancies: recent updates from 2020 ASH annual meeting