RESUMEN
The efficacy of T cell-based immunotherapies is limited by immunosuppressive pressures in the tumor microenvironment. Here we show a predominant role for the interaction between BTLA on effector T cells and HVEM (TNFRSF14) on immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment cells, namely regulatory T cells. High BTLA expression in chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells correlated with poor clinical response to treatment. Therefore, we deleted BTLA in CAR T cells and show improved tumor control and persistence in models of lymphoma and solid malignancies. Mechanistically, BTLA inhibits CAR T cells via recruitment of tyrosine phosphatases SHP-1 and SHP-2, upon trans engagement with HVEM. BTLA knockout thus promotes CAR signaling and subsequently enhances effector function. Overall, these data indicate that the BTLA-HVEM axis is a crucial immune checkpoint in CAR T cell immunotherapy and warrants the use of strategies to overcome this barrier.
Asunto(s)
Inmunoterapia Adoptiva , Receptores Quiméricos de Antígenos , Receptores Inmunológicos , Miembro 14 de Receptores del Factor de Necrosis Tumoral , Microambiente Tumoral , Animales , Humanos , Inmunoterapia Adoptiva/métodos , Miembro 14 de Receptores del Factor de Necrosis Tumoral/metabolismo , Miembro 14 de Receptores del Factor de Necrosis Tumoral/inmunología , Miembro 14 de Receptores del Factor de Necrosis Tumoral/genética , Ratones , Microambiente Tumoral/inmunología , Receptores Quiméricos de Antígenos/inmunología , Receptores Quiméricos de Antígenos/metabolismo , Receptores Quiméricos de Antígenos/genética , Receptores Inmunológicos/metabolismo , Receptores Inmunológicos/genética , Linfocitos T Reguladores/inmunología , Transducción de Señal , Línea Celular Tumoral , Neoplasias/inmunología , Neoplasias/terapia , Ratones NoqueadosRESUMEN
BACKGROUND AIMS: The successful development of CD19-targeted chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies has led to an exponential increase in the number of patients recieving treatment and the advancement of novel CAR T products. Therefore, there is a strong need to develop streamlined platforms that allow rapid, cost-effective, and accurate measurement of the key characteristics of CAR T cells during manufacturing (i.e., cell number, cell size, viability, and basic phenotype). METHODS: In this study, we compared the novel benchtop cell analyzer Moxi GO II (ORFLO Technologies), which enables simultaneous evaluation of all the aforementioned parameters, with current gold standards in the field: the Multisizer Coulter Counter (cell counter) and the BD LSRFortessa (flow cytometer). RESULTS: Our results demonstrated that the Moxi GO II can accurately measure cell number and cell size (i.e., cell volume) while simultaneously assessing simple two-color flow cytometry parameters, such as CAR T-cell viability and CD4 or CAR expression. CONCLUSIONS: These measurements are comparable with those of gold standard instruments, demonstrating that the Moxi GO II is a promising platform for quickly monitoring CAR T-cell growth and phenotype in research-grade and clinical samples.
Asunto(s)
Supervivencia Celular , Citometría de Flujo , Inmunoterapia Adoptiva , Receptores Quiméricos de Antígenos , Linfocitos T , Humanos , Receptores Quiméricos de Antígenos/inmunología , Receptores Quiméricos de Antígenos/metabolismo , Citometría de Flujo/métodos , Inmunoterapia Adoptiva/métodos , Linfocitos T/inmunología , Linfocitos T/metabolismo , Antígenos CD19/inmunología , Antígenos CD19/metabolismo , Fenotipo , Receptores de Antígenos de Linfocitos T/inmunología , Receptores de Antígenos de Linfocitos T/metabolismo , Inmunofenotipificación/métodos , Tamaño de la CélulaRESUMEN
Most patients treated with US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells eventually experience disease progression. Furthermore, CAR T cells have not been curative against solid cancers and several hematological malignancies such as T cell lymphomas, which have very poor prognoses. One of the main barriers to the clinical success of adoptive T cell immunotherapies is CAR T cell dysfunction and lack of expansion and/or persistence after infusion. In this study, we found that CD5 inhibits CAR T cell activation and that knockout (KO) of CD5 using CRISPR-Cas9 enhances the antitumor effect of CAR T cells in multiple hematological and solid cancer models. Mechanistically, CD5 KO drives increased T cell effector function with enhanced cytotoxicity, in vivo expansion, and persistence, without apparent toxicity in preclinical models. These findings indicate that CD5 is a critical inhibitor of T cell function and a potential clinical target for enhancing T cell therapies.