0000000000049396
AUTHOR
Edite Antunes
Gene Therapy With a High-Affinity Single-Chain p53-Specific TCR Mediates Potent Anti-Tumor Response Without Inducing Gvhd In Vivo
Abstract The adoptive transfer of tumor-reactive cells is a promising approach in the treatment of human malignancies, but the challenge of isolating T cells with high-avidity for tumor antigens in each patient has limited its widespread application. Using HLA-A2.1 transgenic mice, we have demonstrated the feasibility of T-cell receptor (TCR) gene transfer into T cells to circumvent self-tolerance to the widely expressed human p53(264-272) tumor-associated antigen and developed approaches to generate high-affinity CD8-independent TCR. However, a safety concern of TCR gene transfer is the risk of pairing between introduced and the naturally expressed endogenous TCR chains, resulting in the g…
Increasing functional avidity of TCR-redirected T cells by removing defined N-glycosylation sites in the TCR constant domain
Adoptive transfer of T lymphocytes transduced with a T cell receptor (TCR) to impart tumor reactivity has been reported as a potential strategy to redirect immune responses to target cancer cells (Schumacher, T.N. 2002. Nat. Rev. Immunol. 2:512-519). However, the affinity of most TCRs specific for shared tumor antigens that can be isolated is usually low. Thus, strategies to increase the affinity of TCRs or the functional avidity of TCR-transduced T cells might be therapeutically beneficial. Because glycosylation affects the flexibility, movement, and interactions of surface molecules, we tested if selectively removing conserved N-glycoslyation sites in the constant regions of TCR alpha or …
p53 Isoform D133p53a: A Novel Transcriptional Enhancer of T-Cell Effector Function to Improve T-Cell Based Cancer Immunotherapy
Abstract Background: Adoptive transfer of genetically modified T lymphocytes with tumor antigen-specific receptor has proven efficacy in cancer immunotherapy. However, in many patients the overall benefit is still limited due to various tumor escape mechanisms. Cell damage and metabolic/hypoxic stress in the tumor microenvironment (TME) can lead to a dysfunctional anti-tumor T cell response called T cell senescence. The tumor suppressor TP53 is a master molecule in the regulation of cell cycle and senescence. Few studies have demonstrated the critical role of p53 isoforms in the regulation of cellular senescence mainly in tumor cells. However, their role in tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (T…
Safe and Effective Adoptive T-Cell Receptor Transfer with a High Affinity Single Chain p53(264–272)-Specific TCR
Abstract Abstract 4226 Several studies have demonstrated the clinical efficacy of adoptive T cell therapy for targeting cancer. Using HLA-A2.1 transgenic mice, we have demonstrated the feasibility of T-cell receptor (TCR) gene transfer into T cells to circumvent self-tolerance to the widely expressed human p53(264–272) tumor-associated antigen and developed approaches to generate high-affinity CD8-independent TCR. A safety concern of TCR gene transfer is the pairing of endogenous and introduced TCR chains resulting in the potential generation of self-reactive T cells (off-target autoimmunity). Several strategies to favor matched TCR chains pairing and thus enhancing TCR cell surface express…
Interfering with Arginine Metabolism As a New Treatment Strategy for Multiple Myeloma
Abstract Introduction Starvation of tumor cells from the amino acid arginine has recently gained particular interest because of the downregulation of the rate-limiting enzyme argininosuccinate synthethase 1 (ASS1) in various cancer entities. ASS1-deficient cells cannot resynthesize arginine from citrulline and are therefore considered arginine auxotrophic. The arginine depleting enzyme arginine deiminase (ADI-PEG20, Polaris Pharmaceuticals) is currently tested in phase I-III clinical trials for different arginine auxotrophic cancers. The natural arginine analogue canavanine can compete with arginine for arginyl-tRNA-binding sites and consequently be incorporated into nascent proteins instea…