scholarly journals Tandem CD19/CD22 Dual Targets CAR-T Cells Therapy Acquires Superior CR Rate Than CD19 CAR-T Cells: A Case Controlled Study

Blood ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 136 (Supplement 1) ◽  
pp. 44-44
Author(s):  
Wei Cui ◽  
Xinyue Zhang ◽  
Haiping Dai ◽  
Qingya Cui ◽  
Baoquan Song ◽  
...  

Background: CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cells therapy has shown unprecedented success in relapsed/refractory (r/r) ALL. Now it is recommended for the treatment of patients up to 25 years with r/r precursor B-ALL. Despite its high response rate, approximately 50% of r/r ALL patients relapsed after CD19 CAR T-cell therapy, which was mainly due to CD19 antigen loss or short persistence of CAR T-cells in vivo. CD19 and CD22 dual target CAR T-cells have demonstrated to reduce relapse post CD19 CAR T-cell therapy in limited cases. This study was designed to investigate the efficacy and safety of CD19/CD22 dual targets CAR-T cells and the correlation between that and CD19 CAR-T cells. Methods: A novel tandem CD19/CD22 CAR-T construct with CD28 and OX40 co-stimulatory domains were administered. All patients received FC (fludarabine, 30 mg/m2, days 1-3 and cyclophosphamide, 300 mg/m2, days 1-3) based regimen chemotherapy pre-infusion. Median infusion dose of CAR-T cells was 1(0.5-2.5) *107 cells/kg. All the patients accepted the bone marrow examination 28 days post CAR-T infusion. We conducted a retrospective, case controlled study analysis at the First Hospital of Soochow University. Every patient with active disease treated with CD19/CD22 CAR-T cells therapy was paired with one control subject who received CD19 CAR-T cells from January 2017 to September 2019. We matched the control group to prevent bias according to: (1) bone marrow blast before CAR-T infusion; (2) extramedullary involvement; (3) cytogenetic risk groups according to NCCN guideline; (4) transplantation status pre-infusion. Results: From 2017 Oct to 2020 Jul, 36 patients were enrolled into the clinical trial (NCT: 03614858). Patients who accepted more than 4 previous treatments account for 58.3% and 8 patients received stem cell transplantation pre-infusion. Bone marrow blasts 40.75 (0~94.5)%. After tandem CD19/CD22 CAR-T infusion, all patients achieved completely remission (CR) and minimal residual disease negative (MRD-) CR rate is 77.8%. The 6-month OS rate is 88.36% and 12-month OS rate is 70.6%. The 6-month LFS rate is 88.072% and the 12-month LFS rate is 69.216%. CAR-T bridging HSCT (25/36) obviously improves the 1-year LFS rate compared with non-transplantation group (11/36) (82.309% vs 31.169%, p=0.0135). All the side effects were mild and can be relieved through support treatments. 8 out of 36 patients developed with grade 3~4 CRS. 2 patients had HLH but soon relieved through low dose steroids. 28 out of 36 patients who accepted dual targets CAR-T cells didn't get complete remission before infusion. Therefore, 28 patients were enrolled in the CD19 CAR-T group. There are no significant differences between two groups at baseline. The CR rate was higher in CD19/CD22 group than that in CD19 group(100% vs 53.57%, p=0.000), so was MRD-CR rate(71.43% vs 42.86%,p=0.000). In survival analysis, 6 month overall survival rate of CD19/CD22 group was 69.276% while CD19 group was 53.571%. Of 28 patients who received dual target treatment, 7 patents relapsed while 4 relapsed out of 15 CR patients in CD19 group. Conclusions:The tandem CD19/22 dual CAR-T cell therapy is a safe and high efficacy treatment for R/R ALL patients. Our study demonstrated that dual targets CAR-T cells acquires higher CR rate than CD19 CAR-T cells. It is possible that multi-targeted CAR-T cell therapy may overcome this resistance mechanism and improve clinical outcomes. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Blood ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 132 (Supplement 1) ◽  
pp. 4275-4275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kai Sun ◽  
Xuejun Zhang ◽  
Zhen Wang ◽  
Yuqing Chen ◽  
Lei Zhang ◽  
...  

Abstract Introduction: CD19-specific CAR-T cells have shown promise in the treatment of relapsed or refractory Ph+ ALL. It remains to be established whether allogeneic CAR-T cells have clinical activity in patients with relapsed CML lymphoid blast crisis with a history of allo-HSCT. Here we report our experience in two cases of allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy for treatment of relapse after allo-HSCT in patients with refractory CML lymphoid blast crisis. Methods: For manufacture of allogeneic CAR-T cells, peripheral blood mononuclear cells were collected from the same stem cell donor. Lentiviral construction and generation of CAR-T cells, clinical protocol design, assessment and management of cytokine release syndrome (CRS), were performed as described in our previous report (Leukemia. 2017;31:2587-2593). Fludarabine and cyclophosphamide had been administered for lymphocyte depletion before allogeneic CAR-T cells infusion. Patients: Patient 1 was a 52-year-old woman with refractory CML lymphoid blast crisis, who had a relapse after undergoing allo-HSCT from her daughter (HLA-10/10). Her initial examinations of peripheral blood and bone marrow were consistent with the diagnosis of CML lymphoid blast crisis. Cytogenetics and molecular analysis confirmed the presence of t(9;22)(q34;q11) and BCR-ABL1 210 fusion protein. In February 2017, examination of bone marrow revealed a further increase of lymphoblasts to 83.2%. In addition, ABL1 kinase mutations (Y253H and E255K/V) were identified. The patient underwent HLA 10/10-matched allo-HSCT without acute GVHD. A remission with a negative test for BCR-ABL1 210 and 99.62% donor chimerism had been achieved, then she had a lymphoblastic relapse occurred 2 months after allo-HSCT. Consistently, BCR-ABL1 210 turned positive, and chimerism analysis showed 67.4% donor chimerism. 3 weeks after relapse, allogeneic CAR-T cells were infused at the dose of 5×106 /kg CD19-specific CAR-T cells. Patient 2 was a 39-year-old male patient with relapsed CML lymphoid blast crisis with a history of allo-HSCT. He had received a diagnosis of CML chronic phase 7 years earlier. Bone marrow revealed a karyotype of 46, XY, t(3;9;22)(q27;q34;q11) and BCR-ABL mRNA transcript. From April 2011 to September 2012, the patient was treated with nilotinib. In September 2012, bone marrow examination revealed 78% lymphoblasts, thus the diagnosis of CML lymphoid blast crisis was established. In December 2012, the patient underwent HLA 7/10-matched sibling allo-HSCT (from his brother) without evidence of GVHD and maintained CR for 2 years. In December 2014, the patient developed bone marrow relapse (lymphoblast 9.5%) and extramedullary leukemia (testicular involvement) harboring the BCR-ABL-T315I mutation. During 2014 to 2018, the patient received multiple courses of CIKs, HDMTX and DLI, but failed to achieve CR. In March 2018, the patient received healthy donor derived allogeneic CAR19 T cells (2×105/kg) therapy. Result: Before CAR-T cells infusion, both patients with refractory CML lymphoid blast crisis had a relapse after successful allo-HSCT. Approximately 1 month after CAR-T cells infusion, a persistent morphologic remission, a recovering BM, and complete absence of BCR-ABL mRNA transcripts confirmed morphologic and molecular remission in both patients. Consistent with this, flow cytometry could not detect blasts or CD19+ B lineage cells. Patient 1 did not experience toxicities and allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy was well tolerated. Patient 2 developed severe CRS (Gr 4) including high-grade fevers (>40°C), hypotension, hypoxia, mental status changes, and seizures. These episodes ran for approximately 1 week before they were halted by treatment with steroids plus tocilizumab, and plasma exchange. The toxicity of allogeneic CAR-T cells is correlated with high levels of IL-6, IFN-γ, TNF-a, and CRP. Conclusion: The clinical outcomes from these 2 patients demonstrate the in vivo efficacy of allogeneic CD19-targeted T cells to induce clinical, morphology and molecular remissions as well as B cell aplasia in adults with relapsed CML lymphoid blast crisis with a history of allo-HSCT. The efficacy of allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy may not always be related to the risk of severe CRS. The degree of HLA matching may have a major impact on the prevention of CRS after allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy. Fully HLA-matched-pair may increase the safety and efficacy of the allogeneic CAR-T cell therapy. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Blood ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 134 (26) ◽  
pp. 2361-2368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin J. Curran ◽  
Steven P. Margossian ◽  
Nancy A. Kernan ◽  
Lewis B. Silverman ◽  
David A. Williams ◽  
...  

Abstract Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells have demonstrated clinical benefit in patients with relapsed/refractory (R/R) B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL). We undertook a multicenter clinical trial to determine toxicity, feasibility, and response for this therapy. A total of 25 pediatric/young adult patients (age, 1-22.5 years) with R/R B-ALL were treated with 19-28z CAR T cells. Conditioning chemotherapy included high-dose (3 g/m2) cyclophosphamide (HD-Cy) for 17 patients and low-dose (≤1.5 g/m2) cyclophosphamide (LD-Cy) for 8 patients. Fifteen patients had pretreatment minimal residual disease (MRD; <5% blasts in bone marrow), and 10 patients had pretreatment morphologic evidence of disease (≥5% blasts in bone marrow). All toxicities were reversible, including severe cytokine release syndrome in 16% (4 of 25) and severe neurotoxicity in 28% (7 of 25) of patients. Treated patients were assessed for response, and, among the evaluable patients (n = 24), response and peak CAR T-cell expansion were superior in the HD-Cy/MRD cohorts, as compared with the LD-Cy/morphologic cohorts without an increase in toxicity. Our data support the safety of CD19-specific CAR T-cell therapy for R/R B-ALL. Our data also suggest that dose intensity of conditioning chemotherapy and minimal pretreatment disease burden have a positive impact on response without a negative effect on toxicity. This trial was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as #NCT01860937.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Castelletti ◽  
Dannel Yeo ◽  
Nico van Zandwijk ◽  
John E. J. Rasko

AbstractMalignant mesothelioma (MM) is a treatment-resistant tumor originating in the mesothelial lining of the pleura or the abdominal cavity with very limited treatment options. More effective therapeutic approaches are urgently needed to improve the poor prognosis of MM patients. Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cell therapy has emerged as a novel potential treatment for this incurable solid tumor. The tumor-associated antigen mesothelin (MSLN) is an attractive target for cell therapy in MM, as this antigen is expressed at high levels in the diseased pleura or peritoneum in the majority of MM patients and not (or very modestly) present in healthy tissues. Clinical trials using anti-MSLN CAR T cells in MM have shown that this potential therapeutic is relatively safe. However, efficacy remains modest, likely due to the MM tumor microenvironment (TME), which creates strong immunosuppressive conditions and thus reduces anti-MSLN CAR T cell tumor infiltration, efficacy and persistence. Various approaches to overcome these challenges are reviewed here. They include local (intratumoral) delivery of anti-MSLN CAR T cells, improved CAR design and co-stimulation, and measures to avoid T cell exhaustion. Combination therapies with checkpoint inhibitors as well as oncolytic viruses are also discussed. Preclinical studies have confirmed that increased efficacy of anti-MSLN CAR T cells is within reach and offer hope that this form of cellular immunotherapy may soon improve the prognosis of MM patients.


Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 1229
Author(s):  
Ali Hosseini Rad S. M. ◽  
Joshua Colin Halpin ◽  
Mojtaba Mollaei ◽  
Samuel W. J. Smith Bell ◽  
Nattiya Hirankarn ◽  
...  

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has revolutionized adoptive cell therapy with impressive therapeutic outcomes of >80% complete remission (CR) rates in some haematological malignancies. Despite this, CAR T cell therapy for the treatment of solid tumours has invariably been unsuccessful in the clinic. Immunosuppressive factors and metabolic stresses in the tumour microenvironment (TME) result in the dysfunction and exhaustion of CAR T cells. A growing body of evidence demonstrates the importance of the mitochondrial and metabolic state of CAR T cells prior to infusion into patients. The different T cell subtypes utilise distinct metabolic pathways to fulfil their energy demands associated with their function. The reprogramming of CAR T cell metabolism is a viable approach to manufacture CAR T cells with superior antitumour functions and increased longevity, whilst also facilitating their adaptation to the nutrient restricted TME. This review discusses the mitochondrial and metabolic state of T cells, and describes the potential of the latest metabolic interventions to maximise CAR T cell efficacy for solid tumours.


2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (Supplement_6) ◽  
pp. vi102-vi103
Author(s):  
Tomás A Martins ◽  
Marie-Françoise Ritz ◽  
Tala Shekarian ◽  
Philip Schmassmann ◽  
Deniz Kaymak ◽  
...  

Abstract The GBM immune tumor microenvironment mainly consists of protumoral glioma-associated microglia and macrophages (GAMs). We have previously shown that blockade of CD47, a ‘don't eat me’-signal overexpressed by GBM cells, rescued GAMs' phagocytic function in mice. However, monotherapy with CD47 blockade has been ineffective in treating human solid tumors to date. Thus, we propose a combinatorial approach of local CAR T cell therapy with paracrine GAM modulation for a synergistic elimination of GBM. We generated humanized EGFRvIII CAR T-cells by lentiviral transduction of healthy donor human T-cells and engineered them to constitutively release a soluble SIRPγ-related protein (SGRP) with high affinity towards CD47. Tumor viability and CAR T-cell proliferation were assessed by timelapse imaging analysis in co-cultures with endogenous EGFRvIII-expressing BS153 cells. Tumor-induced CAR T-cell activation and degranulation were confirmed by flow cytometry. CAR T-cell secretomes were analyzed by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Immunocompromised mice were orthotopically implanted with EGFRvIII+ BS153 cells and treated intratumorally with a single CAR T-cell injection. EGFRvIII and EGFRvIII-SGRP CAR T-cells killed tumor cells in a dose-dependent manner (72h-timepoint; complete cytotoxicity at effector-target ratio 1:1) compared to CD19 controls. CAR T-cells proliferated and specifically co-expressed CD25 and CD107a in the presence of tumor antigen (24h-timepoint; EGFRvIII: 59.3±3.00%, EGFRvIII-SGRP: 52.6±1.42%, CD19: 0.1±0.07%). Differential expression analysis of CAR T-cell secretomes identified SGRP from EGFRvIII-SGRP CAR T-cell supernatants (-Log10qValue/Log2fold-change= 3.84/6.15). Consistent with studies of systemic EGFRvIII CAR T-cell therapy, our data suggest that intratumoral EGFRvIII CAR T-cells were insufficient to eliminate BS153 tumors with homogeneous EGFRvIII expression in mice (Overall survival; EGFRvIII-treated: 20%, CD19-treated: 0%, n= 5 per group). Our current work focuses on the functional characterization of SGRP binding, SGRP-mediated phagocytosis, and on the development of a translational preclinical model of heterogeneous EGFRvIII expression to investigate an additive effect of CAR T-cell therapy and GAM modulation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (Suppl 3) ◽  
pp. A133-A133
Author(s):  
Cheng-Fu Kuo ◽  
Yi-Chiu Kuo ◽  
Miso Park ◽  
Zhen Tong ◽  
Brenda Aguilar ◽  
...  

BackgroundMeditope is a small cyclic peptide that was identified to bind to cetuximab within the Fab region. The meditope binding site can be grafted onto any Fab framework, creating a platform to uniquely and specifically target monoclonal antibodies. Here we demonstrate that the meditope binding site can be grafted onto chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) and utilized to regulate and extend CAR T cell function. We demonstrate that the platform can be used to overcome key barriers to CAR T cell therapy, including T cell exhaustion and antigen escape.MethodsMeditope-enabled CARs (meCARs) were generated by amino acid substitutions to create binding sites for meditope peptide (meP) within the Fab tumor targeting domain of the CAR. meCAR expression was validated by anti-Fc FITC or meP-Alexa 647 probes. In vitro and in vivo assays were performed and compared to standard scFv CAR T cells. For meCAR T cell proliferation and dual-targeting assays, the meditope peptide (meP) was conjugated to recombinant human IL15 fused to the CD215 sushi domain (meP-IL15:sushi) and anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody rituximab (meP-rituximab).ResultsWe generated meCAR T cells targeting HER2, CD19 and HER1/3 and demonstrate the selective specific binding of the meditope peptide along with potent meCAR T cell effector function. We next demonstrated the utility of a meP-IL15:sushi for enhancing meCAR T cell proliferation in vitro and in vivo. Proliferation and persistence of meCAR T cells was dose dependent, establishing the ability to regulate CAR T cell expansion using the meditope platform. We also demonstrate the ability to redirect meCAR T cells tumor killing using meP-antibody adaptors. As proof-of-concept, meHER2-CAR T cells were redirected to target CD20+ Raji tumors, establishing the potential of the meditope platform to alter the CAR specificity and overcome tumor heterogeneity.ConclusionsOur studies show the utility of the meCAR platform for overcoming key challenges for CAR T cell therapy by specifically regulating CAR T cell functionality. Specifically, the meP-IL15:sushi enhanced meCAR T cell persistence and proliferation following adoptive transfer in vivo and protects against T cell exhaustion. Further, meP-ritiuximab can redirect meCAR T cells to target CD20-tumors, showing the versatility of this platform to address the tumor antigen escape variants. Future studies are focused on conferring additional ‘add-on’ functionalities to meCAR T cells to potentiate the therapeutic effectiveness of CAR T cell therapy.


Blood ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 136 (Supplement 1) ◽  
pp. 4-6
Author(s):  
Xian Zhang ◽  
Junfang Yang ◽  
Wenqian Li ◽  
Gailing Zhang ◽  
Yunchao Su ◽  
...  

Backgrounds As CAR T-cell therapy is a highly personalized therapy, process of generating autologous CAR-T cells for each patient is complex and can still be problematic, particularly for heavily pre-treated patients and patients with significant leukemia burden. Here, we analyzed the feasibility and efficacy in 37 patients with refractory/relapsed (R/R) B-ALL who received CAR T-cells derived from related donors. Patients and Methods From April 2017 to May 2020, 37 R/R B-ALL patients with a median age of 19 years (3-61 years), were treated with second-generation CD19 CAR-T cells derived from donors. The data was aggregated from three clinical trials (www.clinicaltrials.gov NCT03173417; NCT02546739; and www.chictr.org.cn ChiCTR-ONC-17012829). Of the 37 patients, 28 were relapsed following allogenic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (allo-HSCT) and whose lymphocytes were collected from their transplant donors (3 HLA matched sibling and 25 haploidentical). For the remaining 9 patients without prior transplant, the lymphocytes were collected from HLA identical sibling donors (n=5) or haploidentical donors (n=4) because CAR-T cells manufacture from patient samples either failed (n=5) or blasts in peripheral blood were too high (>40%) to collect quality T-cells. The median CAR-T cell dose infused was 3×105/kg (1-30×105/kg). Results For the 28 patients who relapsed after prior allo-HSCT, 27 (96.4%) achieved CR within 30 days post CAR T-cell infusion, of which 25 (89.3%) were minimal residual disease (MRD) negative. Within one month following CAR T-cell therapy, graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) occurred in 3 patients including 1 with rash and 2 with diarrhea. A total of 19 of the 28 (67.9%) patients had cytokine release syndrome (CRS), including two patients (7.1%) with Grade 3-4 CRS. Four patients had CAR T-cell related neurotoxicity including 3 with Grade 3-4 events. With a medium follow up of 103 days (1-669days), the median overall survival (OS) was 169 days (1-668 days), and the median leukemia-free survival (LFS) was 158 days (1-438 days). After CAR T-cell therapy, 15 patients bridged into a second allo-HSCT and one of 15 patients (6.7%) relapsed following transplant, and two died from infection. There were 11 patients that did not receive a second transplantation, of which three patients (27.3%) relapsed, and four parents died (one due to relapse, one from arrhythmia and two from GVHD/infection). Two patients were lost to follow-up. The remaining nine patients had no prior transplantation. At the time of T-cell collection, the median bone marrow blasts were 90% (range: 18.5%-98.5%), and the median peripheral blood blasts were 10% (range: 0-70%). CR rate within 30 days post CAR-T was 44.4% (4/9 cases). Six patients developed CRS, including four with Grade 3 CRS. Only one patient had Grade 3 neurotoxicity. No GVHD occurred following CAR T-cell therapy. Among the nine patients, five were treated with CAR T-cells derived from HLA-identical sibling donors and three of those five patients achieved CR. One patient who achieved a CR died from disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC) on day 16. Two patients who achieved a CR bridged into allo-HSCT, including one patient who relapsed and died. One of two patients who did not response to CAR T-cell therapy died from leukemia. Four of the nine patients were treated with CAR T-cells derived from haploidentical related donors. One of the four cases achieved a CR but died from infection on day 90. The other three patients who had no response to CAR T-cell therapy died from disease progression within 3 months (7-90 days). Altogether, seven of the nine patients died with a median time of 19 days (7-505 days). Conclusions We find that manufacturing CD19+ CAR-T cells derived from donors is feasible. For patients who relapse following allo-HSCT, the transplant donor derived CAR-T cells are safe and effective with a CR rate as high as 96.4%. If a patient did not have GVHD prior to CAR T-cell therapy, the incidence of GVHD following CAR T-cell was low. Among patients without a history of transplantation, an inability to collect autologous lymphocytes signaled that the patient's condition had already reached a very advanced stage. However, CAR T-cells derived from HLA identical siblings can still be considered in our experience, no GVHD occurred in these patients. But the efficacy of CAR T-cells from haploidentical donors was very poor. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Blood ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 136 (Supplement 1) ◽  
pp. 39-40
Author(s):  
Aimee C Talleur ◽  
Renee M. Madden ◽  
Amr Qudeimat ◽  
Ewelina Mamcarz ◽  
Akshay Sharma ◽  
...  

CD19-CAR T-cell therapy has shown remarkable efficacy in pediatric patients with relapsed and/or refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (r/r ALL). Despite high short-term remission rates, many responses are not durable and the best management of patients who achieve a complete response (CR) post-CAR T-cell therapy remains controversial. In particular, it is unclear if these patients should be observed or proceed to consolidative allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). To address this question, we reviewed the clinical course of all patients (n=22) who received either an investigational CAR T-cell product (Phase I study: SJCAR19 [NCT03573700]; n=12) or tisagenlecleucel (n=10) at our institution. The investigational CD19-CAR T cells were generated by a standard cGMP-compliant procedure using a lentiviral vector encoding a 2nd generation CD19-CAR with a FMC63-based CD19 binding domain, CD8a stalk and transmembrane domain, and 41BB.ζ signaling domain. Patients received therapy between 8/2018 and 3/2020. All products met manufacturing release specifications. Within the entire cohort, median age at time of infusion was 12.3 years old (range: 1.8-23.5) and median pre-infusion marrow burden using flow-cytometry minimal residual disease (MRD) testing was 6.8% (range: 0.003-100%; 1 patient detectable by next-generation sequencing [NGS] only). All patients received lymphodepleting chemotherapy (fludarabine, 25mg/m2 daily x3, and cyclophosphamide, 900mg/m2 daily x1), followed by a single infusion of CAR T-cells. Phase I product dosing included 1x106 CAR+ T-cells/kg (n=6) or 3x106 CAR+ T-cells/kg (n=6). Therapy was well tolerated, with a low incidence of cytokine release syndrome (any grade: n=10; Grade 3-4: n=4) and neurotoxicity (any grade: n=8; Grade 3-4: n=3). At 4-weeks post-infusion, 15/22 (68.2%) patients achieved a CR in the marrow, of which 13 were MRDneg (MRDneg defined as no detectable leukemia by flow-cytometry, RT-PCR and/or NGS, when available). Among the 2 MRDpos patients, 1 (detectable by NGS only) relapsed 50 days after CAR T-cell infusion and 1 died secondary to invasive fungal infection 35 days after infusion. Within the MRDneg cohort, 6/13 patients proceeded to allogeneic HCT while in MRDneg/CR (time to HCT, range: 1.8-2.9 months post-CAR T-cell infusion). All 6 HCT recipients remain in remission with a median length of follow-up post-HCT of 238.5 days (range 19-441). In contrast, only 1 (14.3%) patient out of 7 MRDneg/CR patients who did not receive allogeneic HCT, remains in remission with a follow up of greater 1 year post-CAR T-cell infusion (HCT vs. no HCT: p<0.01). The remaining 6 patients developed recurrent detectable leukemia within 2 to 9 months post-CAR T-cell infusion (1 patient detectable by NGS only). Notably, recurring leukemia remained CD19+ in 4 of 5 evaluable patients. All 4 patients with CD19+ relapse received a 2nd CAR T-cell infusion (one in combination with pembrolizumab) and 2 achieved MRDneg/CR. There were no significant differences in outcome between SJCAR19 study participants and patients who received tisagenlecleucel. With a median follow up of one year, the 12 month event free survival (EFS) of all 22 patients is 25% (median EFS: 3.5 months) and the 12 month overall survival (OS) 70% (median OS not yet reached). In conclusion, infusion of investigational and FDA-approved autologous CD19-CAR T cells induced high CR rates in pediatric patients with r/r ALL. However, our current experience shows that sustained remission without consolidative allogeneic HCT is not seen in most patients. Our single center experience highlights not only the need to explore maintenance therapies other than HCT for MRDneg/CR patients, but also the need to improve the in vivo persistence of currently available CD19-CAR T-cell products. Disclosures Sharma: Spotlight Therapeutics: Consultancy; Magenta Therapeutics: Other: Research Collaboration; CRISPR Therapeutics, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Novartis: Other: Clinical Trial PI. Velasquez:St. Jude: Patents & Royalties; Rally! Foundation: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Gottschalk:Patents and patent applications in the fields of T-cell & Gene therapy for cancer: Patents & Royalties; TESSA Therapeutics: Other: research collaboration; Inmatics and Tidal: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Merck and ViraCyte: Consultancy.


Author(s):  
Ya.Yu. Kiseleva ◽  
A.M. Shishkin ◽  
A.V. Ivanov ◽  
T.M. Kulinich ◽  
V.K. Bozhenko

Adoptive immunotherapy that makes use of genetically modified autologous T cells carrying a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) with desired specificity is a promising approach to the treatment of advanced or relapsed solid tumors. However, there are a number of challenges facing the CAR T-cell therapy, including the ability of the tumor to silence the expression of target antigens in response to the selective pressure exerted by therapy and the dampening of the functional activity of CAR T cells by the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. This review discusses the existing gene-engineering approaches to the modification of CAR T-cell design for 1) creating universal “switchable” synthetic receptors capable of attacking a variety of target antigens; 2) enhancing the functional activity of CAR T cells in the immunosuppressive microenvironment of the tumor by silencing the expression of inhibiting receptors or by stimulating production of cytokines.


2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. 10000-10000
Author(s):  
Hui Zhang ◽  
Chaoke Bu ◽  
Zhiyong Peng ◽  
min luo ◽  
Chunfu Li

10000 Background: Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy has demonstrated remarkable success in treating a variety of blood cancers, such as CD19 CAR-T for B-cell malignancies and BCMA CAR-T for myeloid myeloma (MM). However, similar achievement has yet to be replicated in patients with relapsed and refractory acute myeloid leukemia (R/R AML), primarily due to the AML heterogeneity, making it difficult to find an ideal CAR-T target. Previous efforts have targeted single CD33, CD123, LeY, NKG2D, or CD70 receptors, but the overall response rate is very disappointed. To address these challenges, we aim to find an effective target for AML without the need for the hematopoietic stem cells transplant (HSCT). In our study, CLL1 is chosen as a promising target as it is not expressed on normal HSCs, but highly expressed on AML blasts cells and leukemia stem cells (LSCs). Here we report the interim analysis from a Phase I clinical trial using anti-CLL1 based CAR-T cells to treat children with R/R AML. The primary and secondary objectives were to evaluate the safety and anti-AML responses, respectively, with long-term prognosis within those patients who did not receive allogeneic HSCT (allo-HSCT) as an additional objective. Methods: We have generated a 2nd generation of CLL1 CAR-T, the extracellular scFv was derived from a murine CLL1 monoclonal antibody, which was generated by hybridoma technology. Autologous CAR-T cells were manufactured in a cGMP facility. Between Oct 2019 and Jan 2021, 11 pediatric R/R AML patients were infused. CLL1 or CLL1-CD33 dual CAR-T cells were given by a dose at 0.3-1x106/kg with a single dose after lymphodepleting conditioning with cyclophosphamide/fludarabine(Cy/Flu). Results: Of the 11 patients infused, Grade 3-4 hematologic adverse events were observed before and during CAR-T cell infusion, and no dose-limiting toxicities were observed. Meanwhile, grade 1-3 cytokine release syndrome was observed but without any lethal events. All the adverse effects were resolved after guideline-directed intervention. Anti-CLL1 CAR-T cells efficiently expanded in vivo, the median expansion peaking time was at Day 8. For these 11 R/R-AML patients, 10 patients completely responded to anti-CLL1 based CAR-T cell therapy, with CLL1 positive AML blast eliminated within one month. Among the responded 10 patients, 5 patients reached CR/MRD-, 3 patients reached CR/MRD+, 1 patient reached PR and 1 patient showed SD, with only CLL1 negative AML cells. Conclusions: Our study demonstrated that 10/11 patients responded to CLL1 CAR-T cell therapy within one month. For patients showing MRD+ with CLL1 negative AML blast, chemotherapy like Azacitidine, and combined with HSCT may help those patients to reach complete response. These initial results suggested that anti-CLL1 base CAR-T cells can be a well-tolerated and candidate option for treating children with R/R-AML. Clinical trial information: ChiCTR1900027684.


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