摘要
Despite the tremendous progress of chimeric antigen receptor T(CAR-T)cell therapy in hematological malignancies,their application in solid tumors has been limited largely due to T-cell exhaustion in the tumor microenvironment(TME)and systemic toxicity caused by excessive cytokine release.As a key regulator of the immunosuppressive TME,TGF-βpromotes cytokine synthesis via the NF-κB pathway.Here,we coexpressed SMAD7,a suppressor of TGF-βsignaling,with a HER2-targeted CAR in engineered T cells.These novel CAR-T cells displayed high cytolytic efficacy and were resistant to TGF-β-triggered exhaustion,which enabled sustained tumoricidal capacity after continuous antigen exposure.Moreover,SMAD7 substantially reduced the production of inflammatory cytokines by antigen-primed CAR-T cells.Mechanistically,SMAD7 downregulated TGF-βreceptor I and abrogated the interplay between the TGF-βand NF-κB pathways in CAR-T cells.As a result,these CAR-T cells persistently inhibited tumor growth and promoted the survival of tumor-challenged mice regardless of the hostile tumor microenvironment caused by a high concentration of TGF-β.SMAD7 coexpression also enhanced CAR-T-cell infiltration and persistent activation in patient-derived tumor organoids.Therefore,our study demonstrated the feasibility of SMAD7 coexpression as a novel approach to improve the efficacy and safety of CAR-T-cell therapy for solid tumors.
基金
supported by a grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.81972870)
the Independent Research Topic of State Key Laboratory of Cancer Biology of Fourth Military Medical University(CBSKL2022ZZ20)
Shaanxi Innovative Research Team for Key Science and Technology(S2022-ZC-TD-0065)
the Natural Science Foundation of Henan Province(No.222300420264)
Tangdu Hospital-key research project(2022TDGS007).