Engineered lymphocytes for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Hepatocellular carcinoma is the third leading cause of cancer death worldwide with a death rate greater than 600,000 persons annually. Glypican-3, a membrane-associated heparan sulfate glycoprotein normally silenced in the adult liver, is re-expressed in approximately 70% of hepatocellular carcinomas. The extracellular domain of glypican-3 is recognized by antibodies, allowing for a potential therapeutic use of glypican-3-specific antibodies. T-body constructs that use single-chain variable fragments (scFv) from antibodies linked to the intracellular signaling domains of the T-cell receptor complex have been used to activate lymphocytes against surface antigens of tumors such as mesothelin and MUC1. In this proposal, we propose to validate the effector capacity of engineered lymphocytes harboring T-bodies that utilize a novel glypican-3- specific scFv developed in our laboratory and to establish the requisite models for preclinical testing of these engineered lymphocytes. The proposed experiments will (1) validate the chimeric antigen receptor itself and its capacity to imbue lymphocytes from hepatocellular carcinoma patients with potent antigen-specific effector function in vitro and (2) establish the xenograft model required for in vivo testing. These studies will address early conceptual stages of research into this novel approach to treat and/or prevent hepatocellular carcinoma, clarify the potential utility of applying chimeric antigen receptor technology for this disease, and prioritize future studies geared toward clinical development of this technology for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Hepatocellular carcinoma is the third leading cause of cancer death worldwide with a death rate greater than 600,000 persons annually. Treatment options for hepatocellular carcinoma remain extremely limited for patients in whom liver transplantation is not an option. We propose to initiate the validation of a relatively novel immunotherapeutic technology not previously applied to hepatocellular carcinoma.