Lentiviral delivery of combinatorial CAR/CRISPRi circuit into human primary T cells is enhanced by TBK1/IKKɛ complex inhibitor BX795

Journal of Translational Medicine

Lei Stanley Qi¹  Wei Wang²  Qinghui Xiong²  Zhiming Fang²  Lihong Weng²  Alejandra Pelayo³  Richa Srivastava³  Carolyn Denson³  Lingyu Li³  Rona Harari-Steinfeld³  Yuan Gao³  Francesco M. Marincola³  Angshumala Goswami³  Zhifen Yang³ 

[1] Department of Bioengineering, Department of Chemical and Systems Biology, ChEM-H, Stanford University, 94305, Stanford, CA, USA;Hangzhou Juwu Biotech Co., Ltd., 310018, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China;Refuge Biotechnologies Inc., 94025, Menlo Park, CA, USA;

关键词: BX795;    Lentiviral transduction;    T cell engineering;    CAR-T;    CRISPRi;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12967-020-02526-2

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundAdoptive transfer of engineered immune cells is a promising strategy for cancer treatment. However, low transduction efficiency particularly when large payload lentiviral vectors are used on primary T cells is a limitation for the development of cell therapy platforms that include multiple constructs bearing long DNA sequences. RB-340-1 is a new CAR T cell that combines two strategies in one product through a CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) circuit. Because multiple regulatory components are included in the circuit, RB-340-1 production needs delivery of two lentiviral vectors into human primary T cells, both containing long DNA sequences. To improve lentiviral transduction efficiency, we looked for inhibitors of receptors involved in antiviral response. BX795 is a pharmacological inhibitor of the TBK1/IKKɛ complex, which has been reported to augment lentiviral transduction of human NK cells and some cell lines, but it has not been tested with human primary T cells. The purpose of this study was to test if BX795 treatment promotes large payload RB-340-1 lentiviral transduction of human primary T cells.MethodsTo make the detection of gene delivery more convenient, we constructed another set of RB-340-1 constructs containing fluorescent labels named RB-340-1F. We incorporated BX795 treatment into the human primary T cell transduction procedure that was optimized for RB-340-1F. We tested BX795 with T cells collected from multiple donors, and detected the effect of BX795 on T cell transduction, phenotype, cell growth and cell function.ResultsWe found that BX795 promotes RB-340-1F lentiviral transduction of human primary T cells, without dramatic change in cell growth and T cell functions. Meanwhile, BX795 treatment increased CD8+ T cell ratios in transduced T cells.ConclusionsThese results indicate that BX795 treatment is effective, and might be a safe approach to promote RB-340-1F lentiviral transduction of human primary T cells. This approach might also be helpful for other T cell therapy products that need delivery of complicated platform via large payload lentiviral vectors.

【 授权许可】

CC BY