Rapidly-manufactured CD276 CAR-T cells exhibit enhanced persistence and efficacy in pancreatic cancer

Abstract

Abstract Background Pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal malignancies and the lack of treatment options makes it more deadly. Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell (CAR-T) immunotherapy has revolutionized cancer treatment and made great breakthroughs in treating hematological malignancies, however its success in treating solid cancers remains limited mainly due to the lack of tumor-specific antigens. On the other hand, the prolonged traditional manufacturing process poses challenges, taking 2 to 6 weeks and impacting patient outcomes. CD276 has recently emerged as a potential therapeutic target for anti-solid cancer therapy. Here, we investigated the efficacy of CD276 CAR-T and rapidly-manufactured CAR-T against pancreatic cancer. Methods In the present study, CD276 CAR-T was prepared by CAR structure carrying 376.96 scFv sequence, CD8 hinge and transmembrane domain, 4-1BB and CD3ζ intracellular domains. Additionally, CD276 rapidly-manufactured CAR-T (named CD276 Dash CAR-T) was innovatively developed by shortening the duration of ex vitro culture to reduce CAR-T manufacturing time. We evaluated the anti-tumor efficacy of CD276 CAR-T and further compared the functional assessment of Dash CAR-T and conventional CAR-T in vitro and in vivo by detecting the immunophenotypes, killing ability, expansion capacity and tumor-eradicating effect of CAR-T. Results We found that CD276 was strongly expressed in multiple solid cancer cell lines and that CD276 CAR-T could efficiently kill these solid cancer cells. Moreover, Dash CAR-T was successfully manufactured within 48–72 h and the functional validation was carried out subsequently. In vitro, CD276 Dash CAR-T possessed a less-differentiated phenotype and robust proliferative ability compared to conventional CAR-T. In vivo xenograft mouse model, CD276 Dash CAR-T showed enhanced anti-pancreatic cancer efficacy and T cell expansion. Besides, except for the high-dose group, the body weight of mice was maintained stable, and the state of mice was normal. Conclusions In this study, we proved CD276 CAR-T exhibited powerful activity against pancreatic cancer cells in vitro and in vivo. More importantly, we demonstrated the manufacturing feasibility, acceptable safety and superior anti-tumor efficacy of CD276 Dash CAR-T generated with reduced time. The results of the above studies indicated that CD276 Dash CAR-T immunotherapy might be a novel and promising strategy for pancreatic cancer treatment.