Abstract 1511: Subcutaneous injection of total nucleated cells rapidly isolated following four-hour peripheral whole blood exposure to CD3-directed CAR-T lentiviruses with a synthetic driver results in robust CAR-T proliferation and anti-tumor immunity

Background: Adoptive cell therapies using Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CARs) show durable clinical benefit for patients with hematologic malignancies, however, challenges remain for enabling this personalized treatment to be delivered in a timely, cost effective, and logistically friendly manner.

Methods: Lentiviral vectors (LV) encoding CD19 and CD22 CARs with a synthetic driver element were packaged with a VSV-G envelope designed with the capability to target and activate CD3pos T cells in whole blood. LV were directly reconstituted in peripheral whole blood for four hours and total nucleated cells (TNC) or peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) were rapidly isolated utilizing two different closed systems. Immediately following the four-hour exposure event, isolated TNC or PBMC were injected subcutaneously into mice with disseminated Raji luciferase tumor cells. For further characterization, LV-exposed TNC and PBMC were cultured in vitro for six days and functionally examined.

Results: Following four-hour exposure to CD3-directed LVs, more than 90% of T cells, including naïve/naïve derived (CCR7pos CD45ROneg) and central memory (CCR7pos CD45ROpos) T cells present within isolated TNC or PBMC exhibited a significant decrease in CD3 surface expression. Subcutaneous injection of gene modified TNC or PBMC resulted in the in vivo generation and expansion of large numbers of circulating CAR-T positive cells with complete eradication of disseminated Raji tumors. In parallel cell culture experiments, TNC or PBMC isolated following four-hour LV whole blood exposure exhibited robust expansion without additional T-cell receptor (TCR) or CD3 stimulation, while TNC or PBMC not exposed to virus did not show any expansion. Following six days in culture, immunophenotyping by flow cytometry demonstrated that more than 90% of the cells were CD8pos and CD4pos T cells with CAR-T expression present on central memory (CCR7pos CD45ROpos) and effector memory (CCR7neg CD45ROpos) T cells. CAR-T antigen specificity to CD19 and CD22 was measured by IFN-gamma release co-culture assays.

Conclusion: We conclude that large numbers of functionally active CAR-T positive cells can be generated both in vitro and in vivo following a four-hour peripheral whole blood exposure to CD3-directed LVs encoding for CARs with a synthetic driver element. These results provide the basis for an autologous same-day peripheral blood draw to subcutaneous injection rapid point-of-care (rPOC) approach.

Citation Format: Dongming Zhang, Frederic Vigant, Qun He, Anirban Kundu, Wei Zhang, Hongliang Zong, Ewa Jaruga-Killeen, Gregory Schreiber, Michelle Andraza, Alissa R. Kerner, Gregory I. Frost, Sid P. Kerkar. Subcutaneous injection of total nucleated cells rapidly isolated following four-hour peripheral whole blood exposure to CD3-directed CAR-T lentiviruses with a synthetic driver results in robust CAR-T proliferation and anti-tumor immunity [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2021; 2021 Apr 10-15 and May 17-21. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2021;81(13_Suppl):Abstract nr 1511.

Abstract PO074: Logic-gating HER2 CAR-T to the tumor microenvironment mitigates on-target, off-tumor toxicity without compromising cytotoxicity against HER2-over-expressing tumors

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) modified T cells have demonstrated promising anti-tumor effects in hematologic cancers. Because CD19 expression is restricted to B cells, CD19 CAR-T B cell aplasia is a tolerable on-target, off-tumor toxicity. However, antigens found in solid tumors, such as HER2, are also expressed in many critical tissues. HER2 overexpression/amplification occurs in many malignancies, including breast, gastric, lung, ovarian and pancreas. With its elevated receptor copy number and relatively homogeneous expression following gene amplification, HER2 represents an attractive antigen to target via CAR-T. Unfortunately, severe toxicity related to off-tumor binding of the CAR-T to HER2 present in normal tissue may limit the use of CAR-T therapy. To circumvent this issue, we designed a “logic-gated” HER2-targeted CAR-T that preferentially recognizes HER2 in the tumor microenvironment (TME), thereby limiting on-target toxicity of low HER2 levels expressed in normal tissue. HER2 scFvs with pH-restricted binding towards physiologic levels of HER2 were screened as CARs in primary T cells and demonstrated pH dependent cytotoxicity and cytokine release in vitro; the pH-dependence was also preserved in the context of HER2 CAR-Ts vs. ungated HER2 CARs. Antitumor activity and cellular kinetics were assessed in NSG mice bearing human HER2-amplified xenografts. Logic-gated HER2 CARs were capable of regressing established gastric (NCI-N87), breast (BT-474), and ovarian (SK-OV-3) tumors with HER2 amplification. Importantly, logic-gated HER2 CAR-T cells were also capable of completely regressing large established gastric carcinoma xenografts that had progressed on prior trastuzumab therapy. Anti-tumor activity and cellular kinetics were dose dependent, with robust in vivo expansion to peak levels of 190,000 copies/µg gDNA. On-target, off-tumor safety of the CAR-Ts was assessed in NSG mice with enforced expression of human HER2 and luciferase in hepatocytes using a hydrodynamic gene delivery (HGD) model. Compared to ungated HER2 CAR-T constructs, logic-gated HER2 CAR-Ts did not eliminate hepatocyte luciferase expression with human HER2 +1 staining in mouse livers as determined by Herceptest scoring of livers at necropsy. In conclusion, these results demonstrate that a logic-gated HER2-targeted CAR-T is capable of eliminating established HER2-amplified malignancies in a xenograft model, while mitigating potential on-target, off-tumor toxicity.

Citation Format: Wei Zhang, Qun He, Benjamin Lopez, Jianfang Hu, Anirban Kundu, Michelle C. Andraza, Alissa R. Kerner, Gregory H. Schreiber, H. Michael Shepard, Gregory I. Frost. Logic-gating HER2 CAR-T to the tumor microenvironment mitigates on-target, off-tumor toxicity without compromising cytotoxicity against HER2-over-expressing tumors [abstract]. In: Abstracts: AACR Virtual Special Conference: Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy; 2020 Oct 19-20. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Immunol Res 2021;9(2 Suppl):Abstract nr PO074.

Syntrophic co-culture amplification of production phenotype for high-throughput screening of microbial strain libraries

Microbes can be engineered to synthesize a wide array of bioproducts, yet production phenotype evaluation remains a frequent bottleneck in the design-build-test cycle where strain development requires iterative rounds of library construction and testing. Here, we present Syntrophic Co-culture Amplification of Production phenotype (SnoCAP). Through a metabolic cross-feeding circuit, the production level of a target molecule is translated into highly distinguishable co-culture growth characteristics, which amplifies differences in production into highly distinguishable growth phenotypes. We demonstrate SnoCAP with the screening of Escherichia coli strains for production of two target molecules: 2-ketoisovalerate, a precursor of the drop-in biofuel isobutanol, and L-tryptophan. The dynamic range of the screening can be tuned by employing an inhibitory analog of the target molecule. Screening based on this framework requires compartmentalization of individual producers with the sensor strain. We explore three formats of implementation with increasing throughput capability: confinement in microtiter plates (102-104 assays/experiment), spatial separation on agar plates (104-105 assays/experiment), and encapsulation in microdroplets (105-107 assays/experiment). Using SnoCAP, we identified an efficient isobutanol production strain from a random mutagenesis library, reaching a final titer that is 5-fold higher than that of the parent strain. The framework can also be extended to screening for secondary metabolite production using a push-pull strategy. We expect that SnoCAP can be readily adapted to the screening of various microbial species, to improve production of a wide range of target molecules.