Adeleye O Adeshakin, Hao Shi, S Scott Perry, Heather Sheppard, Phuong Nguyen, Xiang Sun, Peipei Zhou, Jean-Yves Métais, Trevor Cunningham, Anil Kc, Liqing Tian, Vivek Peche, Mollie S Prater, Deanna M Langfitt, Carla O'Reilly, Jeoungeun J Park, Ashley Chabot, Sheng Zhou, Azusa Matsubara, GaHyun Lee, Shengdar Q Tsai, Shondra M Pruett-Miller, Lindsay J Talbot, Jason T Yustein, Giedre Krenciute, Christopher DeRenzo, Hongbo Chi, Stephen Gottschalk
The microenvironment in solid tumors represents an immunosuppressive therapeutic barrier to CAR T cell therapy, and it is currently unknown whether it can be reshaped by the deletion of negative regulators in CAR T cells. To address this knowledge gap, we evaluated the intrinsic and extrinsic effects of deleting the negative regulator Regnase-1 (Reg-1) in B7-H3-CAR T cells for the immunotherapy of osteosarcoma. Reg-1 knockout (KO) improved the antitumor activity of human and murine B7-H3-CAR T cells in vivo. In immune-competent models, Reg-1 KO also endowed murine B7-H3-CAR T cells with the ability to create a proinflammatory landscape characterized by an influx of interferon gamma (IFN-γ)-producing endogenous T cells and natural killer (NK) cells and a reduction of inhibitory myeloid cells, including M2-like macrophages. Thus, deleting Reg-1 has cell- and non-cell-autonomous benefits, nominating Reg-1 KO B7-H3-CAR T cells as a promising cell product for early-phase clinical testing in patients with solid tumors.