Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology - Theses
Permanent URI for this collection
Search Results
1 - 1 of 1
-
ItemCRISPR/Cas9 Engineering of Next Generation Armoured CAR T Cells( 2023-08)Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy has achieved remarkable successes in the treatment of certain B cell haematological malignancies; however, its efficacy in the solid tumour setting remains limited. This is attributed to a number of factors, including immunosuppression in the tumour microenvironment (TME), T cell exhaustion, tumour antigen heterogeneity and limited trafficking of CAR T cells into the tumour. A promising strategy to overcome these limitations is by engineering, or “armouring”, CAR T cells to express factors that have the potential to enhance therapeutic efficacy, such as proinflammatory cytokines, chemokines, transcription factors, cell surface molecules and synthetic constructs. This strategy has been assessed in the context of various forms of adoptive cellular therapy (ACT), including tumour-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy, as well as transgenic TCR and CAR T cell therapy. Preclinical studies exploring a vast range of armouring genes have demonstrated promising results, with armoured T cell products mediating enhanced anti-tumour efficacy through the capacity to modulate the TME, engage host anti-immune responses and directly enhance T cell function. However, a key limitation of this approach is the potential toxicities caused by peripheral expression of the armouring gene by the engineered T cells, highlighted by the life-threatening side effects observed in an early clinical trial assessing this approach with IL-12-engineered TILs. While strategies have been developed to limit transgene expression to the tumour, such as the synthetic NFAT promoter system, none thus far have successfully demonstrated the ability to prevent clinical toxicities. The advent of CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing, including recent advancements in the engineering of primary T cells, has introduced unique opportunities to enhance the design of armoured T cells. In particular, CRISPR-mediated homology-directed repair (CRISPR-HDR) enables the precise modification of specified genomic sites, including the introduction of a complementary DNA (cDNA) sequence into a target gene locus. Hence, in the context of armoured T cells, CRISPR-HDR can be used to insert armouring genes into a specific endogenous site, creating the possibility to leverage endogenous gene regulatory mechanisms to drive transgene expression. By targeting the armouring gene into the site of an endogenous gene that is exclusively upregulated in intratumoural CAR T cells, this should lead to tumour-restricted expression of the armouring gene. Additionally, integration of the armouring gene can concurrently disrupt expression of the endogenous target gene. Thus, by selecting a target gene that is not only specifically expressed in CAR T cells within the tumour, but also regulates inhibitory T cell functions, this would enable knock-in of a transgene that can enhance therapeutic efficacy while simultaneously knocking out an endogenous inhibitory gene. Therefore, this study assessed the overarching hypothesis that that engineering armoured T cells in accordance with this “knock-in, knock-out” approach would lead to enhanced anti-tumour efficacy while maintaining a favourable safety profile. To explore this hypothesis, a CRISPR-HDR protocol was first developed to engineer primary murine and human transgenic TCR and CAR T cells at high editing efficiencies. This protocol was subsequently applied to generate armoured transgenic TCR and CAR T cells expressing various proinflammatory cytokines under the control of endogenous tumour-specific promoters, and assessed for therapeutic efficacy, mechanism and safety in syngeneic murine models and human xenograft models of ACT. T cells engineered to express TNF, IFN-gamma, IL-2 and IL-12 in a tumour-restricted manner mediated significantly enhanced anti-tumour efficacy; however, their therapeutic effect was largely dependent on the endogenous promoter used. The PD-1 promoter was found to support potent transgene expression in the tumour, which was required for the therapeutic efficacy of TNF, IFN-gamma and IL-2. However, its low level of peripheral expression led to toxicities when used to drive IL-12 expression. Instead, the NR4A2 promoter, which supported highly tumour-restricted transgene expression, was capable of regulating IL-12 production with minimal toxicities while mediating a robust therapeutic response. Hence, these data demonstrate that this CRISPR-HDR strategy is highly customisable, enabling the use of different endogenous promoters to achieve the optimal expression pattern for specific transgenes. In summary, the current study details the development of a novel CRISPR-HDR approach for engineering next generation armoured T cells for ACT, and presents promising preclinical data demonstrating the efficacy, safety, feasibility and translational potential of this approach.