scholarly journals In Vitro Expanded γδ T Cells Derived from Cord Blood Induce Potent and Specific Cytotoxicity Against Human Acute Myeloid Leukemia Cells

Blood ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 128 (22) ◽  
pp. 2168-2168
Author(s):  
Alice MS Cheung ◽  
Kar Wai Tan ◽  
Dian Yan Guo ◽  
Su-Ann Goh ◽  
Amanda SY Lau ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
T Cells ◽  
Myeloid Leukemia ◽  
Γδ T Cells ◽  
Leukemic Cell ◽  
In Vitro Cytotoxicity ◽  
Nsg Mice ◽  
Specific Cytotoxicity ◽  
Post Infusion

Abstract Conventional chemotherapeutic regimens for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients have demonstrated unsurpassed efficacy in the past decades, but are far from optimal with many patients experiencing multiple disease recurrence or intolerant of the intensive chemotoxicity. Variations in the treatment scheme as well as the use of alternative, targeted agents have been pursued with limited success. This is partly ascribed to the highly heterogeneous nature of the disease comprising a dynamic repertoire of evolving leukemic clones that are both molecularly and biologically diverse, making it difficult to achieve complete disease eradication without inducing adverse off-target effects. In this regard, cellular immunotherapy has emerged as a plausible alternative, leveraging on the diversity and degeneracy of the tumor antigen-recognizing receptor complex expressed by immune cells. In particular, there is a growing interest in the specific anti-leukemia efficacy of the innate-like γδ T cells, prompted by the association of an increased number of donor derived γδ T cells (specifically the Vδ1+ subtype) in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) patients with improved disease control in the absence of significant graft-versus-host disease (GvHD). We therefore hypothesize that these allogeneic γδ T cells exhibit potent leukemia specific cytotoxicity and serve as an effective treatment for AML. Given the rapid availability and widespread use of cord blood (CB) as an alternative for allogeneic HSCT, we first characterized and explored the potential of expanding CB-derived γδ T cells in vitro. Compared to mobilized peripheral blood (mPB), there is a significantly lower level of γδ T cell within CB mononuclear cells (MCs) (0.61% ± 0.36% in CB vs 4.95% ± 3.83% in mPB, p<0.001). However, the fraction of Vδ1+ subset within the γδ T cells in CB is >3.5-fold higher than that in mPB (56.05% ± 9.49% in CB vs 14.54% ± 12.2% in mPB, p<0.001). Importantly, while >90% of the Vδ1+ T cells in CB are of naive or central memory phenotype, more than 40% of these cells in mPB show effector memory expression. We established that optimal in vitro expansion of CB-derived γδ T cells requires direct contact to a mixture of irradiated PBMCs and Epstein-Barr virus-transformed lymphoblastoid cell line (EBV-LCL) at a fixed ratio in the gas-permeable G-Rex culture flask. Under these conditions, we were able to achieve up to 5,200-fold expansion of the starting γδ T cells over a period of 21 days. These cells exhibit potent in vitro cytotoxicity against a range of human AML cell lines, including K562, MOLM-14, MV4-11 and NOMO-1, as well as primary patient samples in a dose dependent manner. In contrast, there is minimal in vitro cytotoxicity against CD34+ cells isolated from allogeneic CB samples even at the highest effector-to-target cell (E:T) ratio tested. Infusion of the expanded γδ T cells into NOD/SCID/IL2Rγ-/- (NSG) mice at 3 weeks post-transplantation of a FLT3-ITD+ AML patient sample (P1) resulted in a significant decrease in leukemic cell engraftment in 40% of the γδ T cells-treated mice (87.46 ± 2.25% in non-treated vs 74.85 ± 1.55% in γδ T cells-treated mice, p=0.022). In a separate experiment, infusion into NSG mouse that was engrafted with low level (0.1%) of a different FLT3-ITD+ AML patient sample (P2) maintained the leukemic cell level low at 0.1% at 4 weeks post-infusion, as opposed to the >15-fold increase in leukemic burden (1.76%) seen in the untreated mouse. Consistent with our in vitro finding, infusion of up to 5 x 108 expanded CB derived γδ T cells/kg failed to induce severe GvHD symptoms in NSG mice engrafted with allogeneic human CB cells up to 8 weeks post-infusion, with no significant effect on the level of in vivo regenerated human myeloid and lymphoid cells, as well as colony-forming cells (CFCs). In summary, our data demonstrates that in vitro expanded CB derived γδ T cells show potent AML-specific cytotoxicity both in vitro and in vivo, making it a promising alternative cell source for immunotherapy. Further investigations to enhance the mechanistic understanding would be needed to seed for future clinical translation. Disclosures Hwang: Pfizer: Honoraria, Other: Travel support; MSD: Honoraria, Other: Travel support; BMS: Honoraria, Other: Travel support; Novartis: Honoraria, Other: Travel support; Celgene: Honoraria, Other: Travel support; Roche: Honoraria, Other: Travel support; Janssen: Honoraria, Other: Travel support; Sanofi: Honoraria, Other: Travel support.

scholarly journals Human Cytokine-Induced Memory-like NK Cells Exhibit in Vivo Anti-Leukemia Activity in Xenografted NSG Mice and in Patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML)

Blood ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 126 (23) ◽  
pp. 101-101
Author(s):  
Rizwan Romee ◽  
Rosario Maximillian ◽  
Melissa M Berrien-Elliott ◽  
Julia A Wagner ◽  
Brea A Jewell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Nk Cells ◽  
Myeloid Leukemia ◽  
Low Dose ◽  
Nk Cell ◽  
Leukemia Cells ◽  
Cell Frequency ◽  
Nsg Mice ◽  
Post Infusion

Abstract Natural killer (NK) cells mediate anti-AML responses and previously published clinical trials of adoptive allogeneic NK cell therapy provide proof-of-principle that NK cells may eliminate leukemia cells in patients. However, complete remissions occur in 30-50% of patients with active AML and are typically of limited duration. Thus, improvements are needed for this promising cellular immunotherapy strategy. Following paradigm-shifting studies in mice, it was established that human NK cells exhibit an innate 'memory-like' responses following a brief, combined pre-activation with IL-12, -15, and -18 (Romee R et. al., Blood, 2012). These long-lived memory-like NK cells have an enhanced ability to produce IFN-g in response to restimulation with cytokines or activating receptor ligation, even following extensive proliferation. We hypothesized that memory-like NK cells exhibit enhanced responses to myeloid leukemia. Compared to control NK cells from the same donor, IL-12/15/18-induced memory-like NK cells produced significantly increased IFN-g upon co-culture with primary AML blasts in vitro (P<0.001), following 7 days of rest in low dose IL-15 vitro. In addition, memory-like NK cells had increased granzyme B expression (P<0.01), and enhanced killing of K562 leukemia targets in vitro (P<0.05). Utilizing an in vivo xenograft model of human NK cells in NSG mice (Leong J et. al., BBMT, 2014), IL-12/15/18-induced memory-like NK cells that differentiated in NSG mice for 7 days exhibited increased IFN-g responses after ex vivo re-stimulation with K562 leukemia, confirming their memory-like functionality (P<0.05). To test in vivo responses to human leukemia in this model, luciferase-expressing K562 cells were engrafted into NSG mice (1x106/mouse, IV), and on day 3, groups of mice were injected with IL-12/15/18-pre-activated or control NK cells from the same donor (4x106/mouse). Mice treated with a single dose of memory-like NK cells exhibited significantly improved in vivo leukemia control measured by whole mouse bioluminescent imaging (P=0.03), as well as overall survival (P<0.05), compared to mice treated with control or no NK cells. Based on these pre-clinical findings, we initiated a first-in-human clinical trial of HLA-haploidentical IL-12/15/18-induced memory-like NK cells in patients with AML (NCT01898793). Relapsed/refractory (rel/ref) AML patients receive lymphodepleting non-myeloablative flu/cy conditioning, infusion of a single dose of CD56+CD3- memory-like donor NK cells, followed by two weeks of low dose rhIL-2. Three patients were treated at dose level 1 (0.5x106 cells/kg) and two patients treated at dose level 2 (1.0x106/kg) with no DLTs observed, and accrual continues. Correlative analyses utilizing donor-specific HLA mAbs allow tracking of donor memory-like NK cell frequency and function following adoptive transfer. Donor memory-like NK cells were detectable in the PB and BM of all tested patients with informative HLA (4/5), peak in frequency at 7-8 days post-infusion, and contract after 14-21 days as expected following recipient T cell recovery (Figure). Memory-like NK cells exhibit significantly increased Ki67%+ as a marker of proliferation at day 7 [97.8+1.0% (donor) vs. 21.6+5.5% (recipient), mean+SEM, P<0.001]. Moreover, functional analyses of NK cells at days 7-8 post-infusion reveal increased numbers of donor IFN-g+ NK cells following restimulation with K562 leukemia cells in the same blood [1009+590 (donor) vs. 8+3 (recipient) IFN-g+ NK cells] or BM [686+423 (donor) vs. 4+2 (recipient) IFN-g+ NK cells] samples. Two of four evaluable patients treated with memory-like NK cells had leukemia free BM and PB at days 14 post-therapy, which correlated with BM NK cell frequency and IFN-g production (Figure). CIML007 had rel/ref AML with 48% BM blasts pre-therapy, and had no evidence of leukemia on day 14, 28, and 100 BM biopsies, and has an ongoing complete remission more than 100 days after this therapy. CIML009 had 80% BM blasts pre-therapy, and had no evidence of leukemia on day 14 BM biopsy post-infusion. Thus, human IL-12/15/18-induced memory-like NK cells expand and have enhanced anti-AML function following adoptive transfer in patients, thereby constituting a promising translational innovation for immunotherapy of AML. Figure 1. Figure 1. Disclosures Fehniger: Celgene: Research Funding.

γδ T cells for immune therapy of patients with lymphoid malignancies

Blood ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 102 (1) ◽  
pp. 200-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Wilhelm ◽  
Volker Kunzmann ◽  
Susanne Eckstein ◽  
Peter Reimer ◽  
Florian Weissinger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
T Cells ◽  
T Cell ◽  
Antitumor Activity ◽  
Low Dose ◽  
Γδ T Cells ◽  
Low Grade ◽  
Treatment Schedule ◽  
Γδ T Cell

Abstract There is increasing evidence that γδ T cells have potent innate antitumor activity. We described previously that synthetic aminobisphosphonates are potent γδ T cell stimulatory compounds that induce cytokine secretion (ie, interferon γ [IFN-γ]) and cell-mediated cytotoxicity against lymphoma and myeloma cell lines in vitro. To evaluate the antitumor activity of γδ T cells in vivo, we initiated a pilot study of low-dose interleukin 2 (IL-2) in combination with pamidronate in 19 patients with relapsed/refractory low-grade non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) or multiple myeloma (MM). The objectives of this trial were to determine toxicity, the most effective dose for in vivo activation/proliferation of γδ T cells, and antilymphoma efficacy of the combination of pamidronate and IL-2. The first 10 patients (cohort A) who entered the study received 90 mg pamidronate intravenously on day 1 followed by increasing dose levels of continuous 24-hour intravenous (IV) infusions of IL-2 (0.25 to 3 × 106 IU/m2) from day 3 to day 8. Even at the highest IL-2 dose level in vivo, γδ T-cell activation/proliferation and response to treatment were disappointing with only 1 patient achieving stable disease. Therefore, the next 9 patients were selected by positive in vitro proliferation of γδ T cells in response to pamidronate/IL-2 and received a modified treatment schedule (6-hour bolus IV IL-2 infusions from day 1-6). In this patient group (cohort B), significant in vivo activation/proliferation of γδ T cells was observed in 5 patients (55%), and objective responses (PR) were achieved in 3 patients (33%). Only patients with significant in vivo proliferation of γδ T cells responded to treatment, indicating that γδ T cells might contribute to this antilymphoma effect. Overall, administration of pamidronate and low-dose IL-2 was well tolerated. In conclusion, this clinical trial demonstrates, for the first time, that γδ T-cell–mediated immunotherapy is feasible and can induce objective tumor responses. (Blood. 2003;102:200-206)

scholarly journals Chimeric Antigen Receptor T Cells Specific for CLL-1 for Treatment of Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Blood ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 132 (Supplement 1) ◽  
pp. 2205-2205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa De Togni ◽  
Miriam Y Kim ◽  
Matt L Cooper ◽  
Julie Ritchey ◽  
Julie O'Neal ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
T Cells ◽  
Cell Line ◽  
Myeloid Leukemia ◽  
Cytotoxic Effects ◽  
Car T Cells ◽  
Human T Cells ◽  
Car T ◽  
Acute Myeloid

Abstract Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells are a novel therapeutic approach which have shown good clinical outcomes in patients receiving CD19 CAR T cells for B cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. CAR T cells are made to express a CAR that recognizes a specific surface antigen on a cell upon which they can then exert cytotoxic effects. We aim to extend the success of this therapy to acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a disease with generally poor clinical outcomes. However, due to the genetic heterogeneity characteristic of AML and the limited number of distinctive tumor markers, it has been difficult to find effective targets for CAR T cells on AML. C-type lectin like molecule-1 (CLL-1), also known as CD371, is a transmembrane glycoprotein that is expressed on about 90% of AML patient samples. CLL-1 may function as an inhibitory signaling receptor, as it contains an intracellular immunoreceptor tyrosine based inhibitory motif (ITIM). CLL-1 is primarily expressed on myeloid lineage cells in the bone marrow and in peripheral blood. While CLL-1 has been shown to be expressed on some granulocytes in the spleen, it is not reported to be expressed in non-hematopoietic tissues or on hematopoietic stem cells, which make CLL-1 a potential therapeutic target for AML. We generated two types of CLL-1 CARs, termed A and B, by using two different single chain variable fragments (scFvs) recognizing CLL-1. We used second generation CARs containing the scFvs, CD8 hinge and transmembrane domain, 4-1BB co-stimulatory domain, and CD3 zeta signaling domains. Using a lentiviral vector, we transferred the CAR gene into healthy donor human T cells and detected CAR expression by flow cytometry. We then tested the specific cytotoxic effects of CLL-1 CART-A and B on a CLL-1-expressing AML cell line, U937, by conducting a 4-hour chromium release assay. We found that both CAR T cells exhibited a dose-dependent killing of U937 (CLL-1 positive), while the untransduced (UTD) T cells had no cytotoxic effect (Figure 1A). We also found that U937 induces degranulation of CLL-1 CAR T cells as measured by CD107a expression by flow cytometry, while Ramos, a CLL-1 negative cell line, does not (Figure 1B). We then proceeded to investigate the in vivo efficacy of the CAR T cells. We injected NOD/SCID/IL2RG-null (NSG) mice with 1 x 106 THP-1 cells, a CLL-1 positive cell line. We confirmed engraftment by bioluminescent imaging (BLI) after 7 days and then injected 4 x 106 UTD, CLL-1 CART-A or CLL-1 CART-B. Surprisingly, only one of the CAR constructs, CLL-1 CART-A, showed significant activity in vivo, although both CARs had shown comparable activity in vitro. CLL-1 CART-A treated mice had delayed tumor progression and significantly increased length of survival (85 days vs. 63 days, p = 0.0021) compared to mice injected with UTD (Figure 1C and D). While CLL-1 CART-B treated mice also exhibited slower tumor growth and a trend towards better survival (72 days vs. 63 days, p=0.0547) this was not statistically significant. Post-mortem analysis showed that human T cells that continued to express CAR were present in the tumor, bone marrow and spleen of mice treated with CLL-1 CART-A only, while the UTD and CLL-1 CART-B treated mice showed tumor in all organs and no T cells. In summary, we show that CLL-1 CAR T cells can selectively eliminate CLL-1 positive target cells in vitro and in vivo, albeit with different degrees of efficacy modulated by the scFv. Studies are ongoing to investigate the mechanism behind the differential activity of these CAR constructs and to increase the long-term antitumor efficacy. Our results demonstrate that targeting CLL-1 using CAR T cell therapy holds promise for the treatment of AML. Disclosures Cooper: WUGEN: Consultancy, Equity Ownership.

scholarly journals Vγ9Vδ2 T cells as a promising innovative tool for immunotherapy of hematologic malignancies

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 211
Author(s):  
Serena Meraviglia ◽  
Carmela La Mendola ◽  
Valentina Orlando ◽  
Francesco Scarpa ◽  
Giuseppe Cicero ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
T Cells ◽  
T Lymphocytes ◽  
Ex Vivo ◽  
Γδ T Cells ◽  
Hematologic Malignancies ◽  
Cytolytic Activity ◽  
Cell Therapies ◽  
Stressed Cells

The potent anti-tumor activities of γδ T cells, their ability to produce pro-inflammatory cytokines, and their strong cytolytic activity have prompted the development of protocols in which γδ agonists or ex vivo-expanded γδ cells are administered to tumor patients. γδ T cells can be selectively activated by either synthetic phosphoantigens or by drugs that enhance their accumulation into stressed cells as aminobisphosphonates, thus offering new avenues for the development of γδ T cell-based immunotherapies. The recent development of small drugs selectively activating Vγ9Vδ2 T lymphocytes, which upregulate the endogenous phosphoantigens, has enabled the investigators to design the experimental approaches of cancer immunotherapies; several ongoing phase I and II clinical trials are focused on the role of the direct bioactivity of drugs and of adoptive cell therapies involving phosphoantigen- or aminobisphosphonate-activated Vγ9Vδ2 T lymphocytes in humans. In this review, we focus on the recent advances in the activation/expansion of γδ T cells in vitro and in vivo that may represent a promising target for the design of novel and highly innovative immunotherapy in patients with hematologic malignancies.<br />

scholarly journals Checkpoint Blockade in Combination with CD33 Chimeric Antigen Receptor T Cell Therapy and Hypomethylating Agent Against Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Blood ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 134 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 1383-1383 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tongyuan Xue ◽  
Marissa Del Real ◽  
Emanuela Marcucci ◽  
Candida Toribio ◽  
Sonia Maryam Setayesh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
T Cells ◽  
Acute Myeloid Leukemia ◽  
T Cell ◽  
Myeloid Leukemia ◽  
T Cell Therapy ◽  
Programmed Death ◽  
Car T ◽  
Acute Myeloid

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the most common acute leukemia in adults. The cure rate for primary AML patients is only 35% and decreases with age. Novel and effective immunotherapies for patients with relapsed and/or refractory (r/r) AML remain an urgent unmet need. CD33 is an attractive immunotherapeutic target for myeloid malignancies given its expression on more than 85% of AML patient samples. We therefore set out to design and test CD33 chimeric antigen receptor (CD33CAR) T cells preclinically as a single agent and in combinational therapy. To assess antileukemic responses of CD33CAR T cells in vitro and in vivo, we enriched CD4/CD8 T cells from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and genetically modified them to express a second-generation CD33CAR. CD33CAR T cells exhibited potent antigen dependent CD107a degranulation, IFN-γ production and killing activities against AML cells in vitro. Using a NOD-SCID-IL2Rgnull (NSG) xenograft model engrafted with MOLM-14-ffluc, a CD33 expressing AML cell line transduced with lentivirus carrying firefly luciferase (ffluc) and enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP), 3 million CD33CAR or mock T cells were introduced intravenously. CD33 CAR T cell-treated group displayed 98.2% leukemic regression 4 days post CAR T infusion, and 99.6% reduction on day 31. Bioluminescent imaging (BLI) and Kaplan-Meier analysis demonstrated that CD33CAR T cells significantly decreased leukemic burden and prolonged overall survival compared to mock T cells in vivo. Decitabine, a DNA hypomethylating agent (HMA), is a main therapeutic agent for treating AML. We observed HMA treatment led to increased CD33 expression on MOLM-14 cells in vitro. We hypothesized that decitabine can potentiate CD33CAR T cell-mediated AML killing by increasing CD33 expression. MOLM-14 cells were treated with either decitabine alone, CD33CAR T cells alone, or sequential treatment using various concentrations of decitabine or DMSO followed by CD33CAR or mock T cells in an E:T ratio of 1:100. We determined the target specific killing activities in each group using flow cytometric based analysis 48 and 96 hours later. The decitabine followed by CD33CAR T cells treatment reproducibly resulted in the most robust antileukemic activity with 80.6% MOLM-14 cells killed. In comparison, CD33CAR T cells or decitabine monotherapy resulted in 11.5% and 50.9% killing, respectively. In vivo testing of the combinational effects of decitabine and CD33CAR T cells are underway and will be updated at the meeting. Finally, checkpoint blockade targeting programmed death-1 (PD-1)/programmed death-ligand 1 (PD-L1) has shown survival benefits, particularly in combination with HMA, for patients with r/r AML (Daver et al. 2019). We observed elevated PD-L1 expression on residual AML blasts that survived the treatment with decitabine in combination with CD33CAR T cells. Therefore, we hypothesized that blockade of PD-1/PD-L1 interaction might further improve the antileukemic effect of CD33CAR T cells against AML cells post antigen induction by decitabine. MOLM-14 cells were treated with decitabine for 2 days and CD33CAR T cells were added in an E:T ratio of 1:75. Anti-PD-1 or IgG4 antibody was added to the culture at various concentrations. The most robust CD33 specific killing was seen in the culture with anti-PD-1 antibody added. Further characterization are underway and will be presented. Taken together, our preclinical findings have demonstrated the potency of the CD33CAR T cell therapy and ways to optimize its efficacy. Our results support clinical translation of CD33CAR T cells for patients with AML. Disclosures Budde: F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd: Consultancy.

scholarly journals Selective anergy of V beta 8+,CD4+ T cells in Staphylococcus enterotoxin B-primed mice.

1990 ◽  
Vol 172 (4) ◽  
pp. 1065-1070 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y Kawabe ◽  
A Ochi
Keyword(s):  
T Cells ◽  
T Cell ◽  
Cd8 T Cells ◽  
Cd4 T Cells ◽  
T Cell Anergy ◽  
Specific Cytotoxicity ◽  
Enterotoxin B ◽  
Staphylococcus Enterotoxin B

The cellular basis of the in vitro and in vivo T cell responses to Staphylococcus enterotoxin B (SEB) has been investigated. The proliferation and cytotoxicity of V beta 8.1,2+,CD4+ and CD8+ T cells were observed in in vitro response to SEB. In primary cytotoxicity assays, CD4+ T cells from control spleens were more active than their CD8+ counterparts, however, in cells derived from SEB-primed mice, CD8+ T cells were dominant in SEB-specific cytotoxicity. In vivo priming with SEB abrogated the response of V beta 8.1,2+,CD4+ T cells despite the fact that these cells exist in significant number. This SEB-specific anergy occurred only in V beta 8.1,2+,CD4+ T cells but not in CD8+ T cells. These findings indicate that the requirement for the induction of antigen-specific anergy is different between CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in post-thymic tolerance, and the existence of coanergic signals for the induction of T cell anergy is suggested.

scholarly journals In Vivo Expansion of Co-Transplanted T Cells Impacts on Tumor Re-Initiating Activity of Human Acute Myeloid Leukemia in NSG Mice

PLoS ONE ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. e60680 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malte von Bonin ◽  
Martin Wermke ◽  
Kadriye Nehir Cosgun ◽  
Christian Thiede ◽  
Martin Bornhauser ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
T Cells ◽  
Acute Myeloid Leukemia ◽  
Myeloid Leukemia ◽  
Nsg Mice ◽  
Human Acute Myeloid Leukemia ◽  
Acute Myeloid
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