IL-12 reprograms CAR-expressing natural killer T cells to long-lived Th1-polarized cells with potent antitumor activity.
Nat Commun
; 15(1): 89, 2024 01 02.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38167707
ABSTRACT
Human natural killer T cells (NKTs) are innate-like T lymphocytes increasingly used for cancer immunotherapy. Here we show that human NKTs expressing the pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-12 (IL-12) undergo extensive and sustained molecular and functional reprogramming. Specifically, IL-12 instructs and maintains a Th1-polarization program in NKTs in vivo without causing their functional exhaustion. Furthermore, using CD62L as a marker of memory cells in human NKTs, we observe that IL-12 maintains long-term CD62L-expressing memory NKTs in vivo. Notably, IL-12 initiates a de novo programming of memory NKTs in CD62L-negative NKTs indicating that human NKTs circulating in the peripheral blood possess an intrinsic differentiation hierarchy, and that IL-12 plays a role in promoting their differentiation to long-lived Th1-polarized memory cells. Human NKTs engineered to co-express a Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) coupled with the expression of IL-12 show enhanced antitumor activity in leukemia and neuroblastoma tumor models, persist long-term in vivo and conserve the molecular signature driven by the IL-12 expression. Thus IL-12 reveals an intrinsic plasticity of peripheral human NKTs that may play a crucial role in the development of cell therapeutics.
Full text:
1
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Natural Killer T-Cells
/
Receptors, Chimeric Antigen
Type of study:
Prognostic_studies
Limits:
Humans
Language:
En
Journal:
Nat Commun
Journal subject:
BIOLOGIA
/
CIENCIA
Year:
2024
Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
United States