Improving the Efficacy of Allogeneic Cell Therapies of Cancer

提高癌症同种异体细胞疗法的疗效

• 批准号: 10620375
• 负责人: Feiyan Mo
• 金额: $ 7.55万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-08-01 至 2026-07-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10620375
• 关键词: Address; Adoptive Cell Transfers; Adoptive Transfer; Affect; Allogenic; Antibodies; Autologous; Blood Circulation; CAR T cell therapy; CD19 gene; Cancer Patient; Cell Therapy; Cells; Clinical; Clinical Research; Complex; Development; Engineering; Evaluation; Genetic; Goals; Hematologic Neoplasms; Hematology; Immune; Immune Evasion; Immunosuppression; Impairment; Individual; Inflammation; Knowledge; Liquid substance; Lymphocyte; Malignant Neoplasms; Mediating; Mediator of activation protein; Modification; Molecular; Myeloid-derived suppressor cells; Natural Killer Cells; Neoplasm Metastasis; Neuroblastoma; OX40; Patients; Peptides; Performance; Phase; Pre-Clinical Model; Primary Neoplasm; Research; Research Project Grants; Resistance; Rest; Reverse engineering; Risk; Site; Solid; Solid Neoplasm; Study models; Surface; T cell therapy; T-Lymphocyte; TNFSF5 gene; Therapeutic; Treatment Efficacy; Treatment outcome; arm; cancer therapy; cellular targeting; chemokine; chimeric antigen receptor; chimeric antigen receptor T cells; clinical translation; cost; cytokine; exhaust; improved; inflammatory milieu; inhibitor; macrophage; mouse model; next generation; post-doctoral training; preclinical study; prevent; receptor; response; tumor; tumor growth; tumor microenvironment; tumor-immune system interactions

PROJECT SUMMARY While chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cells can be very effective in advanced hematological malignancies, autologous products often have variable potency and require complex and expensive manufacturing, limiting their scalability and accessibility. The long-term goal of this proposal is to develop a well-characterized, ‘off- the-shelf’ (OTS) therapeutic T-cell platform using banked T-cells pre-manufactured from healthy donors, thus offering immediate availability and high potency at a reduced cost. One major limitation of this approach is potential immune rejection of infused OTS T-cells by host T- and NK-cells, which would impair persistence and clinical benefit of the T-cell therapy. Therefore, my graduate dissertation project (Aim 1) focuses on engineering OTS therapeutic T-cells to resist host immune rejection. I have developed the ‘first-in-class’ chimeric alloimmune defense receptor (ADR) which enables allogeneic OTS CAR T-cells to defend themselves by selectively eliminating activated host alloreactive lymphocytes while sparing other resting non-alloreactive cells. T-cells co-expressing a 4-1BB-directed ADR and a CAR evade immune rejection and produce long-term anti- tumor activity in mouse models of OTS CAR T-cell therapy for both liquid and solid tumors. We are now optimizing the 4-1BB-specific ADR for clinical translation and will initiate a Phase I clinical study in our center. I am also exploring other potential ADR targets, including OX40 and CD40L, to maximize the anti-rejection activity. In addition to alloimmune rejection, activity of OTS T-cells in solid tumors can be inhibited by the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME). Mounting evidence suggests that the inflammatory milieu created by therapeutic T-cells may elicit reactive changes both locally (in the TME) and systemically (in circulation) that further inhibit anti-tumor activity of therapeutic T-cells and possibly promote tumor growth and metastasis. Examples include a surge of immunosuppressive M2-like macrophages in neuroblastoma patients receiving GD2 CAR T-cells and poor responses to CD19 CAR T-cell therapy in patients with high circulating myeloid-derived suppressor cells. In addition, preclinical studies indicate that treatment-induced inflammation enhances pre-metastatic niche (PMN) formation and increases the risk of metastasis. Therefore, during my post- doctoral training (Aim 2), I will first elucidate the reactive changes (both in TME and in circulation) caused by therapeutic T-cells and identify cellular/molecular mediators of enhanced immunosuppression at the primary tumor site. I will also investigate how T-cell therapies may affect PMN formation in solid tumors. I will then further modify therapeutic T-cells to counteract these unwanted responses by arming them with secreted factors (antibodies, peptide inhibitors) to block the responsible cytokines / chemokines, or by enabling them to selectively eliminate inhibitory cellular subsets in the TME. Successful completion of both Aims will ultimately improve the efficacy of OTS T-cell therapies of cancer.

项目总结 虽然嵌合抗原受体(CAR)T细胞在晚期血液系统恶性肿瘤中非常有效， 自体产品的效力往往不同，需要复杂而昂贵的制造，这限制了 它们的可扩展性和可访问性。这项提议的长期目标是开发一种具有良好特点的、 使用来自健康捐赠者的预先制造的银行T细胞的(OTS)治疗性T细胞平台，因此 以更低的成本提供即时可用和高效率。这种方法的一个主要限制是 宿主T细胞和NK细胞对输注的OTS T细胞的潜在免疫排斥反应，这将损害持久性和 T细胞治疗的临床益处。因此，我的毕业论文项目(目标1)的重点是工程学 治疗T细胞以抵抗宿主免疫排斥反应。我研制出了一流的嵌合体 同种异体免疫防御受体(ADR)使同种异体OTS CAR T细胞通过 选择性地清除激活的宿主同种异体反应淋巴细胞，同时保留其他静止的非同种异体反应细胞。 共表达4-1BB导向的ADR和CAR的T细胞逃避免疫排斥反应并产生长期抗 OTS CAR-T细胞治疗液体和固体肿瘤小鼠模型的肿瘤活性。我们现在是 优化用于临床翻译的4-1BB特异性ADR，并将在我们中心启动I期临床研究。我 我还探索了其他潜在的ADR靶点，包括OX40和CD40L，以最大限度地发挥抗排斥活性。 除了同种异体免疫排斥反应外，实体瘤中OTS T细胞的活性还可以被抑制 免疫抑制肿瘤微环境(TME)。越来越多的证据表明，炎症环境 由治疗性T细胞产生的可能引起局部(在TME中)和系统(在 循环)，进一步抑制治疗性T细胞的抗肿瘤活性，并可能促进肿瘤生长和 转移。例子包括神经母细胞瘤患者中免疫抑制的M2样巨噬细胞激增 高循环患者接受GD2 CAR T细胞治疗后对CD19 CAR T细胞治疗的不良反应 髓系来源的抑制细胞。此外，临床前研究表明，治疗引起的炎症 促进转移前生态位(PMN)的形成，增加转移的风险。因此，在我任职期间- 博士生培训(目标2)，我将首先阐明由以下因素引起的反应性变化(TME和循环) 治疗T细胞和鉴定初级免疫抑制增强的细胞/分子介质 肿瘤部位。我还将研究T细胞疗法如何影响实体瘤中PMN的形成。然后我会更进一步 修饰治疗性T细胞，通过用分泌因子武装它们来抵消这些有害的反应 (抗体、多肽抑制剂)以阻断负责的细胞因子/趋化因子，或通过使它们选择性地 消除TME中的抑制性细胞亚群。 这两个目标的成功实现将最终提高OTS T细胞治疗癌症的疗效。