Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Harnessing donor TCR specificity for cancer immunotherapy

Cancerous tissues harbor protein mutations that can be recognized by immune system as neoantigens. However, when tumor progresses it indicates that either (A) patient lacks T cells with adequate affinity to tumor neoantigens or (B) tumor environment actively suppresses immune response [or both]. 

For example, novel drug class of checkpoint inhibitors targeting CTLA4 and PD1/PD-L1 inhibitory circuits operating in T cells (Keytruda, Opdivo, Yervoy, Tecentriq) work on option B by modulating tumor suppressive micro-environment.

Another approach obviously would be an option A by using engineered T cells expressing tumor specific T cell receptors. Ideally, patient's own T cells can be expanded and re-infused back to attack tumor cells. But, more likely, patient will lack T cells with  adequate affinity to tumor neoantigens due to TCR editing. 

To overcome this limitation, new study published in journal Science suggested to use instead tumor-specific TCRs harvested from healthy donors. Here, the authors led by T cell expert Ton Schumacher, showed that HLA-matched healthy donors contain T cells with sufficient affinity and specificity to recipient's tumor neoantigens (of note, Ton Schumacher is also affiliated with biotech company Kite Pharma).

This study focused on HLA-A*02:01-restricted neoantigens from stage IV melanoma patients. Neoantigens were identified with whole-exome and RNA sequencing and selected for further analysis based on high predicted binding affinity to HLA-A*02:01. Autologous monocyte-derived dendritic cells transfected with mRNA encoding the candidate epitopes and cultured with healthy donor T cells. All 4 healthy donor  T cells specifically detected mutated tumor neoantigens with greater sensitivity.



Tumor neoantigen-specific T cell response was confirmed in epitope pulse experiment using WT or mut epitopes.



Furthermore, when donor T cell derived TCRs were re-introduced by gene transfer, resulting T cells were specific to patient's mut neoantigen and did not recognize, for example, 3rd party tumor cells.




In summary, this short but definitive study points to a growing and undeniable evidence in support for T cell based cancer immunotherapy. By incorporating donor derived TCR specificity this strategy vastly expands the reach of T cells immunotherapy. The challenge remains how to streamline this process (exome sequencing, MHC:peptide binding prediction, TCR identification, TCR transduction and re-infusion) to make it affordable for every cancer patient.  

David Usharauli

  

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