scholarly journals Efficacy and safety of CAR19/22 T-cell cocktail therapy in patients with refractory/relapsed B-cell malignancies

Blood ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 135 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Na Wang ◽  
Xuelian Hu ◽  
Wenyue Cao ◽  
Chunrui Li ◽  
Yi Xiao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
T Cells ◽  
T Cell ◽  
Tumor Cells ◽  
Target Antigen ◽  
T Cell Therapy ◽  
Car T Cells ◽  
Car T Cell ◽  
Car T Cell Therapy ◽  
Car T ◽  
Negative Tumor

Relapse following chemeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy can arise from progressive loss of the CAR T cells or from loss of the target antigen by tumor cells. Wang et al report that using a mix of CAR T cells targeting CD19 and CD22 reduces relapse with antigen-negative tumor cells. However, a lack of CAR T-cell persistence leads to increased relapse with antigen-positive cells.

scholarly journals Engineered Removal of PD-1 From the Surface of CD19 CAR-T Cells Results in Increased Activation and Diminished Survival

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. S. Kalinin ◽  
V. M. Ukrainskaya ◽  
S. P. Chumakov ◽  
A. M. Moysenovich ◽  
V. M. Tereshchuk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
T Cells ◽  
T Cell ◽  
Cell Therapy ◽  
Tumor Cells ◽  
Functional Impairment ◽  
T Cell Therapy ◽  
Car T Cells ◽  
Car T Cell ◽  
Car T Cell Therapy ◽  
Car T

CAR-T cell therapy is the most advanced way to treat therapy resistant hematologic cancers, in particular B cell lymphomas and leukemias, with high efficiency. Donor T cells equipped ex vivo with chimeric receptor recognize target tumor cells and kill them using lytic granules. CAR-T cells that recognize CD19 marker of B cells (CD19 CAR-T) are considered the gold standard of CAR-T therapy and are approved by FDA. But in some cases, CD19 CAR-T cell therapy fails due to immune suppressive microenvironment. It is shown that tumor cells upregulate expression of PD-L1 surface molecule that binds and increases level and signal provided by PD-1 receptor on the surface of therapeutic CAR-T cells. Induction of this negative signaling results in functional impairment of cytotoxic program in CAR-T cells. Multiple attempts were made to block PD-1 signaling by reducing binding or surface level of PD-1 in CAR-T cells by various means. In this study we co-expressed CD19-CAR with PD-1-specific VHH domain of anti-PD-1 nanobody to block PD-1/PD-L1 signaling in CD19 CAR-T cells. Unexpectedly, despite increased activation of CAR-T cells with low level of PD-1, these T cells had reduced survival and diminished cytotoxicity. Functional impairment caused by disrupted PD-1 signaling was accompanied by faster maturation and upregulation of exhaustion marker TIGIT in CAR-T cells. We conclude that PD-1 in addition to its direct negative effect on CAR-induced signaling is required for attenuation of strong stimulation leading to cell death and functional exhaustion. These observations suggest that PD-1 downregulation should not be considered as the way to improve the quality of therapeutic CAR-T cells.

scholarly journals Cancer-Homing CAR-T Cells and Endogenous Immune Population Dynamics

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 405
Author(s):  
Emanuela Guerra ◽  
Roberta Di Pietro ◽  
Mariangela Basile ◽  
Marco Trerotola ◽  
Saverio Alberti
Keyword(s):  
T Cells ◽  
T Cell ◽  
Cell Therapy ◽  
The Body ◽  
Target Antigen ◽  
T Cell Therapy ◽  
Car T Cells ◽  
Car T Cell ◽  
Car T Cell Therapy ◽  
Car T

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) therapy is based on patient blood-derived T cells and natural killer cells, which are engineered in vitro to recognize a target antigen in cancer cells. Most CAR-T recognize target antigens through immunoglobulin antigen-binding regions. Hence, CAR-T cells do not require the major histocompatibility complex presentation of a target peptide. CAR-T therapy has been tremendously successful in the treatment of leukemias. On the other hand, the clinical efficacy of CAR-T cells is rarely detected against solid tumors. CAR-T-cell therapy of cancer faces many hurdles, starting from the administration of engineered cells, wherein CAR-T cells must encounter the correct chemotactic signals to traffic to the tumor in sufficient numbers. Additional obstacles arise from the hostile environment that cancers provide to CAR-T cells. Intense efforts have gone into tackling these pitfalls. However, we argue that some CAR-engineering strategies may risk missing the bigger picture, i.e., that a successful CAR-T-cell therapy must efficiently intertwine with the complex and heterogeneous responses that the body has already mounted against the tumor. Recent findings lend support to this model.

scholarly journals Development of Novel Anti-CD10 Target Modules for Redirection of Universal CAR T Cells Against CD10-Positive Malignancies

Blood ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 134 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 5612-5612 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anja Feldmann ◽  
Stefanie Koristka ◽  
Claudia Arndt ◽  
Liliana Raquel Loureiro ◽  
Ralf Bergmann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
T Cells ◽  
T Cell ◽  
Tumor Cells ◽  
Hematological Malignancies ◽  
Lymphoblastic Leukemia ◽  
T Cell Therapy ◽  
Car T Cells ◽  
Car T Cell ◽  
Car T Cell Therapy ◽  
Car T

The common acute lymphoblastic leukemia antigen CD10 is a marker for several hematological malignancies, including acute lymphoblastic leukemia as well as T and B cell lymphomas, Burkitt lymphomas, and some solid tumors like renal cell carcinomas, pancreatic tumors and melanomas. Because of its tumor related expression pattern, CD10 is an attractive target for adoptively transferred T cells that are genetically modified to express chimeric antigen receptors (CARs). Recently, conventional CAR T cell therapy targeting CD19-positive hematological malignancies was clinically approved because of its impressive effectiveness in patients. However, CAR T cells can also cause severe side effects like on-target, off-tumor reactions, tumor lysis syndrome and cytokine release syndrome. Most critically, activity of conventional CAR T cells cannot be controlled, once they are applied in patients. As CD10 is also widely expressed on normal tissues, CAR T cell reactivity has to be controllable in order to stop CAR T cell therapy in case of on-target, off-tumor toxicities occur. Especially for this purpose, we have recently established a switchable, modular and universal CAR platform technology, named UniCAR system, which can be repeatedly turned on and off. In contrast to conventional CARs, that directly recognize a tumor-associated antigen (TAA) on the tumor cell surface via their extracellular single-chain variable fragment (scFv), the UniCAR system is structured in a modular manner of two components. The first component are T cells genetically engineered to express UniCARs and the second component are target modules (TMs). Most importantly, UniCARs cannot directly bind to a TAA because their extracellular scFv is directed against the peptide epitope E5B9 which is not present on the surface of living cells. Consequently, UniCAR armed T cells are per se inert. They can be redirected towards tumor cells only via a TM. TMs consist of a scFv targeting a TAA and the epitope E5B9 recognized by UniCARs allowing a cross-linkage of UniCAR T cells with tumor cells which results in T cell activation. As TMs have a very short half-life, UniCAR T cell activity can be controlled by dosing of the TM. Once the TM is administered, UniCAR T cells can be switched on, but once the TM injection is stopped and the TM is eliminated, UniCAR T cells are switched off immediately. Here, we show proof of concept for functionality of the UniCAR system targeting CD10-positive malignancies. Therefor, a novel anti-CD10 TM was constructed which is able to redirect UniCAR T cells to eliminate CD10-expressing tumor cells. In summary, we have established a universal, switchable, modular UniCAR platform technology that can be used to target CD10-positive malignancies. Disclosures Koristka: Intellia Therapeutics: Employment. Bachmann:GEMoaB Monoclonals: Equity Ownership, Patents & Royalties.

scholarly journals CSPG4 as Target for CAR-T-Cell Therapy of Various Tumor Entities–Merits and Challenges

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (23) ◽  
pp. 5942 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dennis C. Harrer ◽  
Jan Dörrie ◽  
Niels Schaft
Keyword(s):  
T Cells ◽  
T Cell ◽  
Cell Therapy ◽  
B Cell Lymphoma ◽  
Target Antigen ◽  
T Cell Therapy ◽  
Car T Cells ◽  
Car T Cell ◽  
Car T Cell Therapy ◽  
Car T

Targeting cancer cells using chimeric-antigen-receptor (CAR-)T cells has propelled adoptive T-cell therapy (ATT) to the next level. A plentitude of durable complete responses using CD19-specific CAR-T cells in patients suffering from various lymphoid malignancies resulted in the approval by the food and drug administration (FDA) of CD19-directed CAR-T cells for the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). A substantial portion of this success in hematological malignancies can be traced back to the beneficial properties of the target antigen CD19, which combines a universal presence on target cells with no detectable expression on indispensable host cells. Hence, to replicate response rates achieved in ALL and DLBCL in the realm of solid tumors, where ideal target antigens are scant and CAR-T cells are still lagging behind expectations, the quest for appropriate target antigens represents a crucial task to expedite the next steps in the evolution of CAR-T-cell therapy. In this review, we want to highlight the potential of chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan 4 (CSPG4) as a CAR-target antigen for a variety of different cancer entities. In particular, we discuss merits and challenges associated with CSPG4-CAR-T cells for the ATT of melanoma, leukemia, glioblastoma, and triple-negative breast cancer.

scholarly journals Destabilization of CAR T-cell treatment efficacy in the presence of dexamethasone

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander B. Brummer ◽  
Xin Yang ◽  
Eric Ma ◽  
Margarita Gutova ◽  
Christine E. Brown ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
T Cells ◽  
T Cell ◽  
Cell Therapy ◽  
Tumor Cells ◽  
T Cell Therapy ◽  
Car T Cells ◽  
Car T Cell ◽  
Car T Cell Therapy ◽  
Car T

AbstractChimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is potentially an effective targeted immunotherapy for glioblastoma, yet there is presently little known about the efficacy of CAR T-cell treatment when combined with the widely used anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressant glucocorticoid, Dexamethasone. Here we present a mathematical model-based analysis of three patient-derived glioblastoma cell lines treated in vitro with CAR T-cells and Dexamethasone. Advanced in vitro experimental cell killing assay technologies allow for highly resolved temporal dynamics of tumor cells treated with CAR T-cells and Dexamethone, making this a valuable model system for studying the rich dynamics of nonlinear biological processes with translational applications. We model the system as a non-autonomous, two-species predator-prey interaction of tumor cells and CAR T-cells, with explicit time-dependence in the clearance rate of Dexamethasone. Using time as a bifurcation parameter, we show that (1) the presence of Dexamethasone destabilizes coexistence equilibria between CAR T-cells and tumor cells and (2) as Dexamethasone is cleared from the system, a stable coexistence equilibrium returns in the form of a Hopf bifurcation. With the model fit to experimental data, we demonstrate that high concentrations of Dexamethasone antagonizes CAR T-cell efficacy by exhausting, or reducing the activity of CAR T-cells, and by promoting tumor cell growth. Finally, we identify a critical threshold in the ratio of CAR T-cell death to CAR T-cell proliferation rates that predicts eventual treatment success or failure that may be used to guide the dose and timing of CAR T-cell therapy in the presence of Dexamethasone in patients.Author summaryBioengineering and gene-editing technologies have paved the way for advance immunotherapies that can target patient-specific tumor cells. One of these therapies, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has recently shown promise in treating glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer often with poor patient prognosis. Dexamethasone is a commonly prescribed anti-inflammatory medication due to the health complications of tumor associated swelling in the brain. However, the immunosuppressant effects of Dexamethasone on the immunotherapeutic CAR T-cells are not well understood. To address this issue, we use mathematical modeling to study in vitro dynamics of Dexamethasone and CAR T-cells in three patient-derived glioblastoma cell lines. We find that in each cell line studied there is a threshold of tolerable Dexamethasone concentration. Below this threshold, CAR T-cells are successful at eliminating the cancer cells, while above this threshold, Dexamethasone critically inhibits CAR T-cell efficacy. Our modeling suggests that in the presence of Dexamethasone reduced CAR T-cell efficacy, or increased exhaustion, can occur and result in CAR T-cell treatment failure.

scholarly journals Blockade of CD95/CD95L Death Signaling Enhances CAR T Cell Persistence and Antitumor Efficacy

Blood ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 134 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 3226-3226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bailin He ◽  
Lei Wang ◽  
Brigitte Neuber ◽  
Anita Schmitt ◽  
Niclas Kneisel ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
T Cells ◽  
Cell Death ◽  
T Cell ◽  
Cell Therapy ◽  
Tumor Cells ◽  
T Cell Therapy ◽  
Car T Cells ◽  
Car T Cell ◽  
Car T Cell Therapy ◽  
Car T

Introduction Despite the encouraging outcome of anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR T) cell therapy in patients with B cell malignancies, CAR T cell persistence remains a major clinical challenge. Activation-induced cell death (AICD) is a programmed cell death caused by the interaction of CD95 and CD95L. Through specific blocking of the CD95-CD95L pathway, the CD95L inhibitor APG101 (Asunercept, Apogenix AG, Heidelberg) could prevent activated T cells from AICD. APG101 is a fully human fusion protein consisting of the extracellular domain of CD95 receptor and the Fc domain of an IgG antibody. Thus, we evaluated whether a blockade of the CD95L pathway through APG101 might improve CAR T cell persistence and enhance antitumor efficacy. Methods Human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from healthy donors were stimulated by plate-bound CD3 and CD28 antibodies, and thereafter transduced with a 3rd generation CD19.CAR.CD28.CD137zeta retroviral vector. An in vitro co-culture stress test assay was employed to assess the functional status and viability of CD19.CAR T cells upon repetitive stimulation with CD19+ tumor cells, i.e. Daudi cells. CAR T cells (5.0 x 105 per well) were co-cultured with tumor cells at a 1:1 E:T ratio (round I) in the presence of APG101. Additional tumor cells were supplied to the co-culture every 24 hours. After 3 rounds (72 hr) of stimulation, tumor cells (CD3-CD19+) and CAR T cells (CD3+CD19-) were harvested for FACS analysis. To assess the antigen-induced CAR T cell proliferation, CAR T cells were preloaded with Cell Trace Violet cytosolic dye and cocultured with tumor cells for 72 hours. Results Activation-induced cell death of CAR T cells was observed after repeated antigenic stimulation, accompanied by increased CD95L expression. CD4+ CAR T cells were more susceptible to AICD compared to CD8+ CAR T cells. But, there was no difference in the expression of CD95L between CD4+ and CD8+ CAR T cells. Interestingly, addition of APG101 significantly inhibited CD95L expression and resulted in a lower level of CAR T cell death. Importantly, APG101 did not hamper the activation and proliferation of CAR T cells but was able to restore CAR T cell viability. The expression of PD1, TIM3 and LAG3 were also up-regulated after successive stimulation, however, their expression on CAR T cells were not influenced by APG101. After 3 days of co-culture, the number of CAR T cells increased in the presence of APG101 (7.9 x 105 vs6.0 x 105, P = 0.01) and residual tumor cells were diminished (1.7 x 105 vs2.7 x 105, P = 0.02). Of note, APG101 itself did not affect CAR T cells or tumor cells when cultured separately. Moreover, the central memory CAR T (TCM) cell subset showed higher CD95L expression after coculturing which could be inhibited by APG101. Therefore, the addition of APG101 to the coculture resulted in a significant accumulation of TCM subset after APG101 treatment. Conclusion Upregulation of CD95L after repeated antigen stimulation was reversed by APG101. CD95L blockade enhanced CAR T cell survival and promoted killing of tumor cells in vitro. Combining CAR T cell therapy with CD95L inhibitor might improve CAR T cell persistence in vivo and thus enhance the effect of CAR T cell therapy. Disclosures Schmitt: Therakos Mallinckrodt: Other: Financial Support . Kneisel:Apogenix AG: Employment. Hoeger:Apogenix AG: Employment, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Schmitt:MSD: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Other: Sponsoring of Symposia; Therakos Mallinckrodt: Other: Financial Support.

scholarly journals Anti-Mesothelin CAR T cell therapy for malignant mesothelioma

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Castelletti ◽  
Dannel Yeo ◽  
Nico van Zandwijk ◽  
John E. J. Rasko
Keyword(s):  
T Cells ◽  
T Cell ◽  
Cell Therapy ◽  
Malignant Mesothelioma ◽  
Oncolytic Viruses ◽  
T Cell Therapy ◽  
Car T Cells ◽  
Car T Cell ◽  
Car T Cell Therapy ◽  
Car T

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.

scholarly journals Metabolic and Mitochondrial Functioning in Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR)—T Cells

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 ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
T Cells ◽  
T Cell ◽  
Cell Therapy ◽  
Chimeric Antigen Receptor ◽  
Metabolic State ◽  
T Cell Therapy ◽  
Car T Cells ◽  
Car T Cell ◽  
Car T Cell Therapy ◽  
Car T

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.

IMMU-45. COMBINATION OF EGFRVIII CAR T-CELL THERAPY AND PARACRINE GAM MODULATION FOR THE TREATMENT OF GBM

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (Supplement_6) ◽  
pp. vi102-vi103
Author(s):  
Tomás A Martins ◽  
Marie-Françoise Ritz ◽  
Tala Shekarian ◽  
Philip Schmassmann ◽  
Deniz Kaymak ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
T Cells ◽  
T Cell ◽  
Cell Therapy ◽  
Differential Expression Analysis ◽  
Dependent Manner ◽  
T Cell Therapy ◽  
Car T Cells ◽  
Car T Cell ◽  
Car T Cell Therapy ◽  
Car T

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.

scholarly journals 221 CRISPR screen identifies loss of IFNγR signaling and downstream adhesion as a resistance mechanism to CAR T-cell cytotoxicity in solid but not liquid tumors

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (Suppl 3) ◽  
pp. A234-A234
Author(s):  
Rebecca Larson ◽  
Michael Kann ◽  
Stefanie Bailey ◽  
Nicholas Haradhvala ◽  
Kai Stewart ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
T Cells ◽  
T Cell ◽  
B Cell ◽  
Solid Tumors ◽  
T Cell Therapy ◽  
Car T Cells ◽  
Car T Cell ◽  
Car T Cell Therapy ◽  
Car T

BackgroundChimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) therapy has had a transformative impact on the treatment of hematologic malignancies1–6 but success in solid tumors remains elusive. We hypothesized solid tumors have cell-intrinsic resistance mechanisms to CAR T-cell cytotoxicity.MethodsTo systematically identify resistance pathways, we conducted a genome-wide CRISPR knockout screen in glioblastoma cells, a disease where CAR T-cells have had limited efficacy.7 8 We utilized the glioblastoma cell line U87 and targeted endogenously expressed EGFR with CAR T-cells generated from 6 normal donors for the screen. We validated findings in vitro and in vivo across a variety of human tumors and CAR T-cell antigens.ResultsLoss of genes in the interferon gamma receptor (IFNγR) signaling pathway (IFNγR1, JAK1, JAK2) rendered U87 cells resistant to CAR T-cell killing in vitro. IFNγR1 knockout tumors also showed resistance to CAR T cell treatment in vivo in a second glioblastoma line U251 in an orthotopic model. This phenomenon was irrespective of CAR target as we also observed resistance with IL13Ralpha2 CAR T-cells. In addition, resistance to CAR T-cell cytotoxicity through loss of IFNγR1 applied more broadly to solid tumors as pancreatic cell lines targeted with either Mesothelin or EGFR CAR T-cells also showed resistance. However, loss of IFNγR signaling did not impact sensitivity of liquid tumor lines (leukemia, lymphoma or multiple myeloma) to CAR T-cells in vitro or in an orthotopic model of leukemia treated with CD19 CAR. We isolated the effects of decreased cytotoxicity of IFNγR1 knockout glioblastoma tumors to be cancer-cell intrinsic because CAR T-cells had no observable differences in proliferation, activation (CD69 and LFA-1), or degranulation (CD107a) when exposed to wildtype versus knockout tumors. Using transcriptional profiling, we determined that glioblastoma cells lacking IFNγR1 had lower upregulation of cell adhesion pathways compared to wildtype glioblastoma cells after exposure to CAR T-cells. We found that loss of IFNγR1 reduced CAR T-cell binding avidity to glioblastoma.ConclusionsThe critical role of IFNγR signaling for susceptibility of solid tumors to CAR T-cells is surprising given that CAR T-cells do not require traditional antigen-presentation pathways. Instead, in glioblastoma tumors, IFNγR signaling was required for sufficient adhesion of CAR T-cells to mediate productive cytotoxicity. Our work demonstrates that liquid and solid tumors differ in their interactions with CAR T-cells and suggests that enhancing T-cell/tumor interactions may yield improved responses in solid tumors.AcknowledgementsRCL was supported by T32 GM007306, T32 AI007529, and the Richard N. Cross Fund. ML was supported by T32 2T32CA071345-21A1. SRB was supported by T32CA009216-38. NJH was supported by the Landry Cancer Biology Fellowship. JJ is supported by a NIH F31 fellowship (1F31-MH117886). GG was partially funded by the Paul C. Zamecnik Chair in Oncology at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and NIH R01CA 252940. MVM and this work is supported by the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, Stand Up to Cancer, NIH R01CA 252940, R01CA238268, and R01CA249062.ReferencesMaude SL, et al. Tisagenlecleucel in children and young adults with B-cell lymphoblastic leukemia. N Engl J Med 2018;378:439–448.Neelapu SS, et al. Axicabtagene ciloleucel CAR T-cell therapy in refractory large B-cell lymphoma. N Engl J Med 2017;377:2531–2544.Locke FL, et al. Long-term safety and activity of axicabtagene ciloleucel in refractory large B-cell lymphoma (ZUMA-1): a single-arm, multicentre, phase 1–2 trial. The Lancet Oncology 2019;20:31–42.Schuster SJ, et al. Chimeric antigen receptor T cells in refractory B-cell lymphomas. N Engl J Med 2017;377:2545–2554.Wang M, et al. KTE-X19 CAR T-cell therapy in relapsed or refractory mantle-cell lymphoma. N Engl J Med 2020;382:1331–1342.Cohen AD, et al. B cell maturation antigen-specific CAR T cells are clinically active in multiple myeloma. J Clin Invest 2019;129:2210–2221.Bagley SJ, et al. CAR T-cell therapy for glioblastoma: recent clinical advances and future challenges. Neuro-oncology 2018;20:1429–1438.Choi BD, et al. Engineering chimeric antigen receptor T cells to treat glioblastoma. J Target Ther Cancer 2017;6:22–25.Ethics ApprovalAll human samples were obtained with informed consent and following institutional guidelines under protocols approved by the Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) at the Massachusetts General Hospital (2016P001219). Animal work was performed according to protocols approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) (2015N000218 and 2020N000114).

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