Author:
Balke-Want Hyatt,Keerthi Vimal,Gkitsas Nikolaos,Mancini Andrew G.,Kurgan Gavin L.,Fowler Carley,Xu Peng,Liu Xikun,Asano Kyle,Patel Sunny,Fisher Christopher J.,Brown Annie K.,Tunuguntla Ramya H.,Patel Shabnum,Sotillo Elena,Mackall Crystal L.,Feldman Steven A.
Abstract
Abstract
Background
Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cells are now standard of care (SOC) for some patients with B cell and plasma cell malignancies and could disrupt the therapeutic landscape of solid tumors. However, access to CAR-T cells is not adequate to meet clinical needs, in part due to high cost and long lead times for manufacturing clinical grade virus. Non-viral site directed CAR integration can be accomplished using CRISPR/Cas9 and double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) or single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) via homology-directed repair (HDR), however yields with this approach have been limiting for clinical application (dsDNA) or access to large yields sufficient to meet the manufacturing demands outside early phase clinical trials is limited (ssDNA).
Methods
We applied homology-independent targeted insertion (HITI) or HDR using CRISPR/Cas9 and nanoplasmid DNA to insert an anti-GD2 CAR into the T cell receptor alpha constant (TRAC) locus and compared both targeted insertion strategies in our system. Next, we optimized post-HITI CRISPR EnrichMENT (CEMENT) to seamlessly integrate it into a 14-day process and compared our knock-in with viral transduced anti-GD2 CAR-T cells. Finally, we explored the off-target genomic toxicity of our genomic engineering approach.
Results
Here, we show that site directed CAR integration utilizing nanoplasmid DNA delivered via HITI provides high cell yields and highly functional cells. CEMENT enriched CAR T cells to approximately 80% purity, resulting in therapeutically relevant dose ranges of 5.5 × 108–3.6 × 109 CAR + T cells. CRISPR knock-in CAR-T cells were functionally comparable with viral transduced anti-GD2 CAR-T cells and did not show any evidence of off-target genomic toxicity.
Conclusions
Our work provides a novel platform to perform guided CAR insertion into primary human T-cells using nanoplasmid DNA and holds the potential to increase access to CAR-T cell therapies.
Funder
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
National Institutes of Health
St. Baldrick's Foundation
Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy
Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Fund for Cancer Research
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Subject
Cancer Research,Oncology,Molecular Medicine
Cited by
2 articles.
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