Memory-like NK cells armed with a neoepitope-specific CAR exhibit potent activity against NPM1 mutated acute myeloid leukemia

<jats:p> Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) remains a therapeutic challenge, and a paucity of tumor-specific targets has significantly hampered the development of effective immune-based therapies. Recent paradigm-changing studies have shown that natural killer (NK) cells exhibit innate...

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Main Authors: Dong, Han, Ham, James Dongjoo, Hu, Guangan, Xie, Guozhu, Vergara, Juliana, Liang, Yong, Ali, Alaa, Tarannum, Mubin, Donner, Hannah, Baginska, Joanna, Abdulhamid, Yasmin, Dinh, Khanhlinh, Soiffer, Robert J, Ritz, Jerome, Glimcher, Laurie H, Chen, Jianzhu, Romee, Rizwan
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biology
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2022
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/146778
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author Dong, Han
Ham, James Dongjoo
Hu, Guangan
Xie, Guozhu
Vergara, Juliana
Liang, Yong
Ali, Alaa
Tarannum, Mubin
Donner, Hannah
Baginska, Joanna
Abdulhamid, Yasmin
Dinh, Khanhlinh
Soiffer, Robert J
Ritz, Jerome
Glimcher, Laurie H
Chen, Jianzhu
Romee, Rizwan
author2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biology
author_facet Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biology
Dong, Han
Ham, James Dongjoo
Hu, Guangan
Xie, Guozhu
Vergara, Juliana
Liang, Yong
Ali, Alaa
Tarannum, Mubin
Donner, Hannah
Baginska, Joanna
Abdulhamid, Yasmin
Dinh, Khanhlinh
Soiffer, Robert J
Ritz, Jerome
Glimcher, Laurie H
Chen, Jianzhu
Romee, Rizwan
author_sort Dong, Han
collection MIT
description <jats:p> Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) remains a therapeutic challenge, and a paucity of tumor-specific targets has significantly hampered the development of effective immune-based therapies. Recent paradigm-changing studies have shown that natural killer (NK) cells exhibit innate memory upon brief activation with IL-12 and IL-18, leading to cytokine-induced memory-like (CIML) NK cell differentiation. CIML NK cells have enhanced antitumor activity and have shown promising results in early phase clinical trials in patients with relapsed/refractory AML. Here, we show that arming CIML NK cells with a neoepitope-specific chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) significantly enhances their antitumor responses to nucleophosphmin-1 (NPM1)-mutated AML while avoiding off-target toxicity. CIML NK cells differentiated from peripheral blood NK cells were efficiently transduced to express a TCR-like CAR that specifically recognizes a neoepitope derived from the cytosolic oncogenic NPM1-mutated protein presented by HLA-A2. These CAR CIML NK cells displayed enhanced activity against NPM1-mutated AML cell lines and patient-derived leukemic blast cells. CAR CIML NK cells persisted in vivo and significantly improved AML outcomes in xenograft models. Single-cell RNA sequencing and mass cytometry analyses identified up-regulation of cell proliferation, protein folding, immune responses, and major metabolic pathways in CAR-transduced CIML NK cells, resulting in tumor-specific, CAR-dependent activation and function in response to AML target cells. Thus, efficient arming of CIML NK cells with an NPM1-mutation-specific TCR-like CAR substantially improves their innate antitumor responses against an otherwise intracellular mutant protein. These preclinical findings justify evaluating this approach in clinical trials in HLA-A2 <jats:sup>+</jats:sup> AML patients with NPM1c mutations. </jats:p>
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spelling mit-1721.1/1467782022-12-08T03:35:54Z Memory-like NK cells armed with a neoepitope-specific CAR exhibit potent activity against NPM1 mutated acute myeloid leukemia Dong, Han Ham, James Dongjoo Hu, Guangan Xie, Guozhu Vergara, Juliana Liang, Yong Ali, Alaa Tarannum, Mubin Donner, Hannah Baginska, Joanna Abdulhamid, Yasmin Dinh, Khanhlinh Soiffer, Robert J Ritz, Jerome Glimcher, Laurie H Chen, Jianzhu Romee, Rizwan Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Biology <jats:p> Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) remains a therapeutic challenge, and a paucity of tumor-specific targets has significantly hampered the development of effective immune-based therapies. Recent paradigm-changing studies have shown that natural killer (NK) cells exhibit innate memory upon brief activation with IL-12 and IL-18, leading to cytokine-induced memory-like (CIML) NK cell differentiation. CIML NK cells have enhanced antitumor activity and have shown promising results in early phase clinical trials in patients with relapsed/refractory AML. Here, we show that arming CIML NK cells with a neoepitope-specific chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) significantly enhances their antitumor responses to nucleophosphmin-1 (NPM1)-mutated AML while avoiding off-target toxicity. CIML NK cells differentiated from peripheral blood NK cells were efficiently transduced to express a TCR-like CAR that specifically recognizes a neoepitope derived from the cytosolic oncogenic NPM1-mutated protein presented by HLA-A2. These CAR CIML NK cells displayed enhanced activity against NPM1-mutated AML cell lines and patient-derived leukemic blast cells. CAR CIML NK cells persisted in vivo and significantly improved AML outcomes in xenograft models. Single-cell RNA sequencing and mass cytometry analyses identified up-regulation of cell proliferation, protein folding, immune responses, and major metabolic pathways in CAR-transduced CIML NK cells, resulting in tumor-specific, CAR-dependent activation and function in response to AML target cells. Thus, efficient arming of CIML NK cells with an NPM1-mutation-specific TCR-like CAR substantially improves their innate antitumor responses against an otherwise intracellular mutant protein. These preclinical findings justify evaluating this approach in clinical trials in HLA-A2 <jats:sup>+</jats:sup> AML patients with NPM1c mutations. </jats:p> 2022-12-07T16:09:41Z 2022-12-07T16:09:41Z 2022 2022-12-07T16:02:38Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/146778 Dong, Han, Ham, James Dongjoo, Hu, Guangan, Xie, Guozhu, Vergara, Juliana et al. 2022. "Memory-like NK cells armed with a neoepitope-specific CAR exhibit potent activity against NPM1 mutated acute myeloid leukemia." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 119 (25). en 10.1073/PNAS.2122379119 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ application/pdf Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences PNAS
spellingShingle Dong, Han
Ham, James Dongjoo
Hu, Guangan
Xie, Guozhu
Vergara, Juliana
Liang, Yong
Ali, Alaa
Tarannum, Mubin
Donner, Hannah
Baginska, Joanna
Abdulhamid, Yasmin
Dinh, Khanhlinh
Soiffer, Robert J
Ritz, Jerome
Glimcher, Laurie H
Chen, Jianzhu
Romee, Rizwan
Memory-like NK cells armed with a neoepitope-specific CAR exhibit potent activity against NPM1 mutated acute myeloid leukemia
title Memory-like NK cells armed with a neoepitope-specific CAR exhibit potent activity against NPM1 mutated acute myeloid leukemia
title_full Memory-like NK cells armed with a neoepitope-specific CAR exhibit potent activity against NPM1 mutated acute myeloid leukemia
title_fullStr Memory-like NK cells armed with a neoepitope-specific CAR exhibit potent activity against NPM1 mutated acute myeloid leukemia
title_full_unstemmed Memory-like NK cells armed with a neoepitope-specific CAR exhibit potent activity against NPM1 mutated acute myeloid leukemia
title_short Memory-like NK cells armed with a neoepitope-specific CAR exhibit potent activity against NPM1 mutated acute myeloid leukemia
title_sort memory like nk cells armed with a neoepitope specific car exhibit potent activity against npm1 mutated acute myeloid leukemia
url https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/146778
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