Increased Activity of a NK-Specific CAR-NK Framework Targeting CD3 and CD5 for T-Cell Leukemias

Cancers

William G. Telford¹  Jennifer A. Kanakry¹  Elisaveta Voynova¹  Damian Kovalovsky¹  Francis A. Flomerfelt¹  Ronald E. Gress¹  Nga Hawk¹ 

[1] Experimental Transplantation and Immunotherapy Branch, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA;

关键词: CAR-NK;    CAR-T;    CD5;    CD3;    T-cell lymphoma;   

DOI  :  10.3390/cancers14030524

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

NK effector cells expressing a CAR construct may be used to target T-lineage markers. In this work, we compared the activity of a NK-specific CAR-NK and a CAR-T framework when expressed on NK effector cells to target CD3 and CD5 in T-cell malignancies. Our results show that CD3-CAR-T is more active than CD5-CAR-T to eliminate malignant T cells in vitro, however, CD3-CAR-T were less efficient to eliminate tumor cells in vivo, while CD5-CAR-T had antitumor activity in a diffuse xenograft model. Lack of in vivo efficacy correlated with downregulation of CD3 levels in target T cells after coculture with CD3-CAR effector cells. The CAR-NK framework greatly improved the efficacy of CARs leading to increased degranulation, cytokine secretion and elimination of the tumor xenograft by CD5-CAR-NK effector cells. Finally, all CAR constructs were similarly effective to eliminate malignant T cells in vitro. Our results show that the NK-CAR framework improves the activity of CARs in NK cells and that CD5 would be a better target than CD3 for T-cell malignancies, as dynamic downregulation of target expression may affect in vivo efficacy.

【 授权许可】

Unknown