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Alvanou M, Lysandrou M, Christophi P, Psatha N, Spyridonidis A, Papadopoulou A, Yannaki E. Empowering the Potential of CAR-T Cell Immunotherapies by Epigenetic Reprogramming. Cancers (Basel) 2023; 15:cancers15071935. [PMID: 37046597 PMCID: PMC10093039 DOI: 10.3390/cancers15071935] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2023] [Revised: 03/19/2023] [Accepted: 03/20/2023] [Indexed: 04/14/2023] Open
Abstract
T-cell-based, personalized immunotherapy can nowadays be considered the mainstream treatment for certain blood cancers, with a high potential for expanding indications. Chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CAR-Ts), an ex vivo genetically modified T-cell therapy product redirected to target an antigen of interest, have achieved unforeseen successes in patients with B-cell hematologic malignancies. Frequently, however, CAR-T cell therapies fail to provide durable responses while they have met with only limited success in treating solid cancers because unique, unaddressed challenges, including poor persistence, impaired trafficking to the tumor, and site penetration through a hostile microenvironment, impede their efficacy. Increasing evidence suggests that CAR-Ts' in vivo performance is associated with T-cell intrinsic features that may be epigenetically altered or dysregulated. In this review, we focus on the impact of epigenetic regulation on T-cell differentiation, exhaustion, and tumor infiltration and discuss how epigenetic reprogramming may enhance CAR-Ts' memory phenotype, trafficking, and fitness, contributing to the development of a new generation of potent CAR-T immunotherapies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Alvanou
- Hematology Department-Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation Unit, Gene and Cell Therapy Center, George Papanikolaou Hospital, 570 10 Thessaloniki, Greece
- Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit, Institute of Cell Therapy, University of Patras, 265 04 Rio, Greece
| | - Memnon Lysandrou
- Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit, Institute of Cell Therapy, University of Patras, 265 04 Rio, Greece
| | - Panayota Christophi
- Hematology Department-Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation Unit, Gene and Cell Therapy Center, George Papanikolaou Hospital, 570 10 Thessaloniki, Greece
- Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit, Institute of Cell Therapy, University of Patras, 265 04 Rio, Greece
| | - Nikoleta Psatha
- Department of Genetics, Development and Molecular Biology, School of Biology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 570 10 Thessaloniki, Greece
| | - Alexandros Spyridonidis
- Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit, Institute of Cell Therapy, University of Patras, 265 04 Rio, Greece
| | - Anastasia Papadopoulou
- Hematology Department-Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation Unit, Gene and Cell Therapy Center, George Papanikolaou Hospital, 570 10 Thessaloniki, Greece
| | - Evangelia Yannaki
- Hematology Department-Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation Unit, Gene and Cell Therapy Center, George Papanikolaou Hospital, 570 10 Thessaloniki, Greece
- Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-2100, USA
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Hurton LV, Singh H, Najjar AM, Switzer KC, Mi T, Maiti S, Olivares S, Rabinovich B, Huls H, Forget MA, Datar V, Kebriaei P, Lee DA, Champlin RE, Cooper LJ. Tethered IL-15 augments antitumor activity and promotes a stem-cell memory subset in tumor-specific T cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2016; 113:E7788-97. [PMID: 27849617 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1610544113] [Citation(s) in RCA: 274] [Impact Index Per Article: 34.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Adoptive immunotherapy retargeting T cells to CD19 via a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) is an investigational treatment capable of inducing complete tumor regression of B-cell malignancies when there is sustained survival of infused cells. T-memory stem cells (TSCM) retain superior potential for long-lived persistence, but challenges exist in manufacturing this T-cell subset because they are rare among circulating lymphocytes. We report a clinically relevant approach to generating CAR+ T cells with preserved TSCM potential using the Sleeping Beauty platform. Because IL-15 is fundamental to T-cell memory, we incorporated its costimulatory properties by coexpressing CAR with a membrane-bound chimeric IL-15 (mbIL15). The mbIL15-CAR T cells signaled through signal transducer and activator of transcription 5 to yield improved T-cell persistence independent of CAR signaling, without apparent autonomous growth or transformation, and achieved potent rejection of CD19+ leukemia. Long-lived T cells were CD45ROnegCCR7+CD95+, phenotypically most similar to TSCM, and possessed a memory-like transcriptional profile. Overall, these results demonstrate that CAR+ T cells can develop long-term persistence with a memory stem-cell phenotype sustained by signaling through mbIL15. This observation warrants evaluation in clinical trials.
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