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Heitzeneder S, Bosse KR, Zhu Z, Zhelev D, Majzner RG, Radosevich MT, Dhingra S, Sotillo E, Buongervino S, Pascual-Pasto G, Garrigan E, Xu P, Huang J, Salzer B, Delaidelli A, Raman S, Cui H, Martinez B, Bornheimer SJ, Sahaf B, Alag A, Fetahu IS, Hasselblatt M, Parker KR, Anbunathan H, Hwang J, Huang M, Sakamoto K, Lacayo NJ, Klysz DD, Theruvath J, Vilches-Moure JG, Satpathy AT, Chang HY, Lehner M, Taschner-Mandl S, Julien JP, Sorensen PH, Dimitrov DS, Maris JM, Mackall CL. GPC2-CAR T cells tuned for low antigen density mediate potent activity against neuroblastoma without toxicity. Cancer Cell 2022; 40:53-69.e9. [PMID: 34971569 PMCID: PMC9092726 DOI: 10.1016/j.ccell.2021.12.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 53] [Impact Index Per Article: 26.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2021] [Revised: 10/13/2021] [Accepted: 12/06/2021] [Indexed: 01/12/2023]
Abstract
Pediatric cancers often mimic fetal tissues and express proteins normally silenced postnatally that could serve as immune targets. We developed T cells expressing chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) targeting glypican-2 (GPC2), a fetal antigen expressed on neuroblastoma (NB) and several other solid tumors. CARs engineered using standard designs control NBs with transgenic GPC2 overexpression, but not those expressing clinically relevant GPC2 site density (∼5,000 molecules/cell, range 1-6 × 103). Iterative engineering of transmembrane (TM) and co-stimulatory domains plus overexpression of c-Jun lowered the GPC2-CAR antigen density threshold, enabling potent and durable eradication of NBs expressing clinically relevant GPC2 antigen density, without toxicity. These studies highlight the critical interplay between CAR design and antigen density threshold, demonstrate potent efficacy and safety of a lead GPC2-CAR candidate suitable for clinical testing, and credential oncofetal antigens as a promising class of targets for CAR T cell therapy of solid tumors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sabine Heitzeneder
- Center for Cancer Cell Therapy, Stanford Cancer Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Lorry Lokey Building, Suite G3141, MC: 5456, 265 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Kristopher R Bosse
- Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA; Department of Pediatrics, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Zhongyu Zhu
- National Cancer Institute, Frederick, MD 21702, USA
| | - Doncho Zhelev
- University of Pittsburgh Department of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA
| | - Robbie G Majzner
- Center for Cancer Cell Therapy, Stanford Cancer Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Lorry Lokey Building, Suite G3141, MC: 5456, 265 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Molly T Radosevich
- Center for Cancer Cell Therapy, Stanford Cancer Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Lorry Lokey Building, Suite G3141, MC: 5456, 265 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Shaurya Dhingra
- Center for Cancer Cell Therapy, Stanford Cancer Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Lorry Lokey Building, Suite G3141, MC: 5456, 265 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Elena Sotillo
- Center for Cancer Cell Therapy, Stanford Cancer Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Lorry Lokey Building, Suite G3141, MC: 5456, 265 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Samantha Buongervino
- Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Guillem Pascual-Pasto
- Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Emily Garrigan
- Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Peng Xu
- Center for Cancer Cell Therapy, Stanford Cancer Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Lorry Lokey Building, Suite G3141, MC: 5456, 265 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Jing Huang
- Center for Cancer Cell Therapy, Stanford Cancer Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Lorry Lokey Building, Suite G3141, MC: 5456, 265 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Benjamin Salzer
- St. Anna Children's Cancer Research Institute, Vienna, Austria; Christian Doppler Laboratory for Next Generation CAR T Cells, Vienna, Austria
| | - Alberto Delaidelli
- Department of Molecular Oncology, British Columbia Cancer Research Centre, Vancouver, BC V5Z 1L3, Canada
| | - Swetha Raman
- Program in Molecular Medicine, Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, Toronto, ON M5G 0A4, Canada
| | - Hong Cui
- Program in Molecular Medicine, Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, Toronto, ON M5G 0A4, Canada
| | - Benjamin Martinez
- Program in Molecular Medicine, Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, Toronto, ON M5G 0A4, Canada
| | | | - Bita Sahaf
- Center for Cancer Cell Therapy, Stanford Cancer Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Lorry Lokey Building, Suite G3141, MC: 5456, 265 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Anya Alag
- Center for Cancer Cell Therapy, Stanford Cancer Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Lorry Lokey Building, Suite G3141, MC: 5456, 265 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Irfete S Fetahu
- University of Pittsburgh Department of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA
| | - Martin Hasselblatt
- Institute of Neuropathology, University Hospital Münster, Münster, Germany
| | - Kevin R Parker
- Center for Personal Dynamic Regulomes, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Hima Anbunathan
- Center for Cancer Cell Therapy, Stanford Cancer Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Lorry Lokey Building, Suite G3141, MC: 5456, 265 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | | | - Min Huang
- Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Kathleen Sakamoto
- Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Norman J Lacayo
- Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Dorota D Klysz
- Center for Cancer Cell Therapy, Stanford Cancer Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Lorry Lokey Building, Suite G3141, MC: 5456, 265 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Johanna Theruvath
- Center for Cancer Cell Therapy, Stanford Cancer Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Lorry Lokey Building, Suite G3141, MC: 5456, 265 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - José G Vilches-Moure
- Department of Comparative Medicine, Animal Histology Services, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Ansuman T Satpathy
- Department of Pathology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Howard Y Chang
- Center for Personal Dynamic Regulomes, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, San Francisco, CA 941209, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
| | - Manfred Lehner
- St. Anna Children's Cancer Research Institute, Vienna, Austria; Christian Doppler Laboratory for Next Generation CAR T Cells, Vienna, Austria
| | | | - Jean-Phillipe Julien
- Program in Molecular Medicine, Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, Toronto, ON M5G 0A4, Canada; Departments of Biochemistry and Immunology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A8, Canada
| | - Poul H Sorensen
- Department of Molecular Oncology, British Columbia Cancer Research Centre, Vancouver, BC V5Z 1L3, Canada
| | - Dimiter S Dimitrov
- University of Pittsburgh Department of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA 15261, USA
| | - John M Maris
- Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA; Department of Pediatrics, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA
| | - Crystal L Mackall
- Center for Cancer Cell Therapy, Stanford Cancer Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Lorry Lokey Building, Suite G3141, MC: 5456, 265 Campus Drive, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, San Francisco, CA 941209, USA; Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
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Barret JM, Nicolas A, Jarry A, Dubreuil O, Meseure D, Passat T, Perrial E, Deleine C, Champenois G, Gaillard S, Duchalais E, Ray-Coquard I, Lahmar M, Dumontet C, Bennouna J, Bossard C, Roman-Roman S, Prost JF. The Expression of Anti-Müllerian Hormone Type II Receptor (AMHRII) in Non-Gynecological Solid Tumors Offers Potential for Broad Therapeutic Intervention in Cancer. Biology (Basel) 2021; 10:305. [PMID: 33917111 DOI: 10.3390/biology10040305] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2021] [Revised: 04/01/2021] [Accepted: 04/01/2021] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Simple Summary Until now, only a few studies have examined the AMHRII expression in tumors. Here, with more than 1000 tumor samples and using several complementary techniques we confirmed AMHRII expression in gynecological cancer and demonstrated AMHRII expression in certain non-gynecological cancers such as colorectal cancers. These findings open the way for new therapeutic approaches targeting AMHRII and emphasize the need to better understand the role of AMH/AMHRII in cancer. Abstract The anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) belongs to the TGF-β family and plays a key role during fetal sexual development. Various reports have described the expression of AMH type II receptor (AMHRII) in human gynecological cancers including ovarian tumors. According to qRT-PCR results confirmed by specific In-Situ Hybridization (ISH) experiments, AMHRII mRNA is expressed in an extremely restricted number of normal tissues. By performing ISH on tissue microarray of solid tumor samples AMHRII mRNA was unexpectedly detected in several non-gynecological primary cancers including lung, breast, head and neck, and colorectal cancers. AMHRII protein expression, evaluated by immunohistochemistry (IHC) was detected in approximately 70% of epithelial ovarian cancers. Using the same IHC protocol on more than 900 frozen samples covering 18 different cancer types we detected AMHRII expression in more than 50% of hepato-carcinomas, colorectal, lung, and renal cancer samples. AMHRII expression was not observed in neuroendocrine lung tumor samples nor in non-Hodgkin lymphoma samples. Complementary analyses by immunofluorescence and flow cytometry confirmed the detection of AMHRII on a panel of ovarian and colorectal cancers displaying comparable expression levels with mean values of 39,000 and 50,000 AMHRII receptors per cell, respectively. Overall, our results suggest that this embryonic receptor could be a suitable target for treating AMHRII-expressing tumors with an anti-AMHRII selective agent such as murlentamab, also named 3C23K or GM102. This potential therapeutic intervention was confirmed in vivo by showing antitumor activity of murlentamab against AMHRII-expressing colorectal cancer and hepatocarcinoma Patient-Derived tumor Xenografts (PDX) models.
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Abstract
Over a century ago, it was reported that immunization with embryonic/fetal tissue could lead to the rejection of transplanted tumors in animals. Subsequent studies demonstrated that vaccination of embryonic materials in animals induced cellular and humoral immunity against transplantable tumors and carcinogen-induced tumors. Therefore, it has been hypothesized that the shared antigens between tumors and embryonic/fetal tissues (oncofetal antigens) are the key to anti-tumor immune responses in these studies. However, early oncofetal antigen-based cancer vaccines usually utilize xenogeneic or allogeneic embryonic stem cells or tissues, making it difficult to tease apart the anti-tumor immunity elicited by the oncofetal antigens vs. graft-vs.-host responses. Recently, one oncofetal antigen-based cancer vaccine using autologous induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) demonstrated marked prophylactic and therapeutic potential, suggesting critical roles of oncofetal antigens in inducing anti-tumor immunity. In this review, we present an overview of recent studies in the field of oncofetal antigen-based cancer vaccines, including single peptide-based cancer vaccines, embryonic stem cell (ESC)- and iPSC-based whole-cell vaccines, and provide insights on future directions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaoming Ouyang
- Cardiovascular Institute, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States.,Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States
| | - Melinda L Telli
- Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States
| | - Joseph C Wu
- Cardiovascular Institute, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States.,Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States.,Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States.,Department of Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States
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Chang AY, Gejman RS, Brea EJ, Oh CY, Mathias MD, Pankov D, Casey E, Dao T, Scheinberg DA. Opportunities and challenges for TCR mimic antibodies in cancer therapy. Expert Opin Biol Ther 2016; 16:979-87. [PMID: 27094818 PMCID: PMC4936943 DOI: 10.1080/14712598.2016.1176138] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
INTRODUCTION Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are potent cancer therapeutic agents, but exclusively recognize cell-surface targets whereas most cancer-associated proteins are found intracellularly. Hence, potential cancer therapy targets such as over expressed self-proteins, activated oncogenes, mutated tumor suppressors, and translocated gene products are not accessible to traditional mAb therapy. An emerging approach to target these epitopes is the use of TCR mimic mAbs (TCRm) that recognize epitopes similar to those of T cell receptors (TCR). AREAS COVERED TCRm antigens are composed of a linear peptide sequence derived from degraded proteins and presented in the context of cell-surface MHC molecules. We discuss how the nature of the TCRm epitopes provides both advantages (absolute tumor specificity and access to a new universe of important targets) and disadvantages (low density, MHC restriction, MHC down-regulation, and cross-reactive linear epitopes) to conventional mAb therapy. We will also discuss potential solutions to these obstacles. EXPERT OPINION TCRm combine the specificity of TCR recognition with the potency, pharmacologic properties, and versatility of mAbs. The structure and presentation of a TCRm epitope has important consequences related to the choice of targets, mAb design, available peptides and MHC subtype restrictions, possible cross-reactivity, and therapeutic activity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aaron Y. Chang
- Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, 10065
- Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, New York, 10065
| | - Ron S. Gejman
- Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, 10065
- Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, New York, 10065
| | - Elliott J. Brea
- Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, 10065
- Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, New York, 10065
| | - Claire Y. Oh
- Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, 10065
- Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, New York, 10065
| | | | - Dmitry Pankov
- Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, 10065
| | - Emily Casey
- Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, 10065
| | - Tao Dao
- Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, 10065
| | - David A. Scheinberg
- Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York, 10065
- Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, New York, 10065
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