title: Enhancement of the in vivo persistence and antitumor efficacy of CD19 chimeric antigen receptor T cells through the delivery of modified TERT mRNA.
abstract: Chimeric antigen receptor T cell immunotherapy is a promising therapeutic strategy for treating tumors, demonstrating its efficiency in eliminating several hematological malignancies in recent years. However, a major obstacle associated with current chimeric antigen receptor T cell immunotherapy is that the limited replicative lifespan of chimeric antigen receptor T cells prohibits the long-term persistence and expansion of these cells in vivo, potentially hindering the long-term therapeutic effects of chimeric antigen receptor T cell immunotherapy. Here we showed that the transient delivery of modified mRNA encoding telomerase reverse transcriptase to human chimeric antigen receptor T cells targeting the CD19 antigen (CD19 chimeric antigen receptor T cells) would transiently elevate the telomerase activity in these cells, leading to increased proliferation and delayed replicative senescence without risk of insertion mutagenesis or immortalization. Importantly, compared to conventional CD19 chimeric antigen receptor T cells, after the transient delivery of telomerase reverse transcriptase mRNA, these CD19 chimeric antigen receptor T cells showed improved persistence and proliferation in mouse xenograft tumor models of human B-cell malignancies. Furthermore, the transfer of CD19 chimeric antigen receptor T cells after the transient delivery of telomerase reverse transcriptase mRNA enhanced long-term antitumor effects in mouse xenograft tumor models compared with conventional CD19 chimeric antigen receptor T cell transfer. The results of the present study provide an effective and safe method to improve the therapeutic potential of chimeric antigen receptor T cells, which might be beneficial for treating other types of cancer, particularly solid tumors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology and Stem Cell Research Center, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Center for Molecular and Translational Medicine, Peking University Health Science Center , Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Bai
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology and Stem Cell Research Center, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Center for Molecular and Translational Medicine, Peking University Health Science Center , Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Shifeng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kan
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology and Stem Cell Research Center, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Center for Molecular and Translational Medicine, Peking University Health Science Center , Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Shixin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology and Stem Cell Research Center, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Center for Molecular and Translational Medicine, Peking University Health Science Center , Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Yuting
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: The MOE Key Laboratory of Cell Proliferation and Differentiation, College of Life Sciences, Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Peking University , Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, Center for Cardiovascular Regeneration, The Methodist Hospital Research Institute , Houston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: John P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Cooke
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology and Stem Cell Research Center, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Center for Molecular and Translational Medicine, Peking University Health Science Center , Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Jinhua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.affiliation: Department of Cell Biology and Stem Cell Research Center, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Center for Molecular and Translational Medicine, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing, China; The MOE Key Laboratory of Cell Proliferation and Differentiation, College of Life Sciences, Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, China; Shenzhen Stem Cell Engineering Laboratory, Key Laboratory of Chemical Genomics, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen, China.
authors.forename: Hongkui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Deng
keywords: CD19 CAR T cells; hTERT; modified mRNA