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Moreno-Cortes E, Franco-Fuquen P, Garcia-Robledo JE, Forero J, Booth N, Castro JE. ICOS and OX40 tandem co-stimulation enhances CAR T-cell cytotoxicity and promotes T-cell persistence phenotype. Front Oncol 2023; 13:1200914. [PMID: 37719008 PMCID: PMC10502212 DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2023.1200914] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/05/2023] [Accepted: 08/02/2023] [Indexed: 09/19/2023] Open
Abstract
Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies have emerged as an effective and potentially curative immunotherapy for patients with relapsed or refractory malignancies. Treatment with CD19 CAR T-cells has shown unprecedented results in hematological malignancies, including heavily refractory leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma cases. Despite these encouraging results, CAR T-cell therapy faces limitations, including the lack of long-term responses in nearly 50-70% of the treated patients and low efficacy in solid tumors. Among other reasons, these restrictions are related to the lack of targetable tumor-associated antigens, limitations on the CAR design and interactions with the tumor microenvironment (TME), as well as short-term CAR T-cell persistence. Because of these reasons, we developed and tested a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) construct with an anti-ROR1 single-chain variable-fragment cassette connected to CD3ζ by second and third-generation intracellular signaling domains including 4-1BB, CD28/4-1BB, ICOS/4-1BB or ICOS/OX40. We observed that after several successive tumor-cell in vitro challenges, ROR1.ICOS.OX40ζ continued to proliferate, produce pro-inflammatory cytokines, and induce cytotoxicity against ROR1+ cell lines in vitro with enhanced potency. Additionally, in vivo ROR1.ICOS.OX40ζ T-cells showed anti-lymphoma activity, a long-lasting central memory phenotype, improved overall survival, and evidence of long-term CAR T-cell persistence. We conclude that anti-ROR1 CAR T-cells that are activated by ICOS.OX40 tandem co-stimulation show in vitro and in vivo enhanced targeted cytotoxicity associated with a phenotype that promotes T-cell persistence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eider Moreno-Cortes
- Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Mayo Clinic, Phoenix, AZ, United States
- Cancer Research and Cellular Therapy Laboratory, Mayo Clinic, Phoenix, AZ, United States
| | - Pedro Franco-Fuquen
- Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Mayo Clinic, Phoenix, AZ, United States
- Cancer Research and Cellular Therapy Laboratory, Mayo Clinic, Phoenix, AZ, United States
| | - Juan E. Garcia-Robledo
- Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Mayo Clinic, Phoenix, AZ, United States
- Cancer Research and Cellular Therapy Laboratory, Mayo Clinic, Phoenix, AZ, United States
| | - Jose Forero
- Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Mayo Clinic, Phoenix, AZ, United States
- Cancer Research and Cellular Therapy Laboratory, Mayo Clinic, Phoenix, AZ, United States
- Division of Internal Medicine, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH, United States
| | - Natalie Booth
- Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Mayo Clinic, Phoenix, AZ, United States
- Cancer Research and Cellular Therapy Laboratory, Mayo Clinic, Phoenix, AZ, United States
- Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders, Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Phoenix, AZ, United States
| | - Januario E. Castro
- Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Mayo Clinic, Phoenix, AZ, United States
- Cancer Research and Cellular Therapy Laboratory, Mayo Clinic, Phoenix, AZ, United States
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Chen Q, Mo L, Cai X, Wei L, Xie Z, Li H, Li J, Hu Z. ICOS signal facilitates Foxp3 transcription to favor suppressive function of regulatory T cells. Int J Med Sci 2018; 15:666-673. [PMID: 29910670 PMCID: PMC6001412 DOI: 10.7150/ijms.23940] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/20/2017] [Accepted: 03/04/2018] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Inducible costimulator (ICOS) plays an important role in the suppressive immunity mediated by regulatory T cells (Tregs), but the molecular regulation mechanism is not well known. Here we performed a study to explore the possible mechanism by which ICOS regulates the suppressive functions and survival of Tregs. This study showed that both the ICOS and CD28 signal could promote the survival of Tregs. However, ICOS but not CD28 improved the suppressive function of Tregs. Mechanistic studies demonstrated that ICOS could induce the transcription activity of Foxp3, by facilitating the nuclear factor of activated T cells (NFAT): Foxp3 over NFAT: activator protein 1 (AP-1). The results of Q-PCR showed that AP1 downstream regulatory genes (IL-2 and IL-6) were down-regulated, and Foxp3 downstream regulatory genes (IL-4, IL-10 and TGF-β) were up-regulated. Further, ICOS promoted anti-apoptosis may be by activating protein kinase B (Akt) signal. These findings demonstrated that ICOS signal could facilitate Foxp3 transcription in favor of survival and suppressive function of Tregs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qianmei Chen
- Institute of Biotherapy, School of Laboratory Medicine and Biotechnology, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Lijun Mo
- Institute of Biotherapy, School of Laboratory Medicine and Biotechnology, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Xiangsheng Cai
- Institute of Biotherapy, School of Laboratory Medicine and Biotechnology, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Lili Wei
- Institute of Biotherapy, School of Laboratory Medicine and Biotechnology, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Zhengneng Xie
- Institute of Biotherapy, School of Laboratory Medicine and Biotechnology, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Hongwei Li
- Institute of Biotherapy, School of Laboratory Medicine and Biotechnology, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Jinlong Li
- Institute of Biotherapy, School of Laboratory Medicine and Biotechnology, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Zhiming Hu
- Institute of Biotherapy, School of Laboratory Medicine and Biotechnology, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
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Guo X, Zheng H, Luo W, Zhang Q, Liu J, Yao K. 5T4-specific chimeric antigen receptor modification promotes the immune efficacy of cytokine-induced killer cells against nasopharyngeal carcinoma stem cell-like cells. Sci Rep 2017; 7:4859. [PMID: 28687750 PMCID: PMC5501797 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-04756-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/01/2016] [Accepted: 05/19/2017] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Relapse and metastasis of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) are presumably attributed to cancer stem cells (CSCs). In recent years, chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-modified immune effector cells have been shown to have impressive antitumour efficacy. In this study, we aimed to identify appropriate tumour-associated antigens predominantly expressed on NPC stem cells (NPCSCs) and determine their suitability for CAR-engineered cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cell therapy against NPC. By investigating the expression patterns of potential target antigens (ROR1, 5T4 and CAIX) in NPC, we found that the oncofetal antigen 5T4 was predominately expressed in NPC cell lines and tissues but absent in non-cancerous nasopharyngeal tissues. Moreover, significantly enhanced expression of 5T4 in NPC spheroids revealed its relationship with putative NPCSCs. Hence, we designed a CAR construct (5T4-28Z) specific for 5T4 and generated CAR-transduced CIK cells. Our results showed that the artificial CAR was efficiently expressed on the surface of CIK cells and that no native phenotypes were altered by the gene transduction. Functional assays revealed that 5T4-28Z-CIK cells possessed both CAR-mediated and CAR-independent anti-NPC activity and were capable of efficiently attacking NPC cells, especially NPCSC-like cells in vitro, suggesting that they might serve as an attractive tool for developing efficient therapies against NPC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xueyang Guo
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Cancer Immunotherapy and Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Tumour Immunology Research, Cancer Research Institute, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Hang Zheng
- Department of Oncology, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Weiren Luo
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Cancer Immunotherapy and Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Tumour Immunology Research, Cancer Research Institute, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China.,Department of Pathology, Shenzhen Third People's Hospital, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China
| | - Qianbing Zhang
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Cancer Immunotherapy and Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Tumour Immunology Research, Cancer Research Institute, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Jingxian Liu
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Cancer Immunotherapy and Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Tumour Immunology Research, Cancer Research Institute, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China
| | - Kaitai Yao
- Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Cancer Immunotherapy and Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Tumour Immunology Research, Cancer Research Institute, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China. .,Shenzhen Hospital, Southern Medical University, Shenzhen, China.
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