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Harnessing Features of Adaptive NK Cells to Generate iPSC-Derived NK Cells for Enhanced Immunotherapy

ABSTRACT: Cell-based immunotherapy can control bulky tumors, but effector cell persistence, tumor resistance, inconsistencies of the manufactured product, and treatment cost continue to pose challenges. To address these limitations, we developed a triple gene-edited induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) platform for broad patient-based adoptive cell therapy. iPSCs were engineered to express a high affinity, non-cleavable version of the Fc receptor CD16a to augment antibody-mediated activity and a membrane-bound IL-15/IL-15R fusion (IL-15RF) protein to promote survival and maturation. The third edit was knockout of the ecto-enzyme CD38 that hydrolyzes NAD+ and is the target of the therapeutic antibody daratumumab. Natural killer (NK) cells derived from these iPSCs displayed metabolic features and gene expression profiles similar to those of adaptive NK cells that arise in response to cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection. These engineered iPSC-derived NK cells, termed iADAPT, persisted in vivo in the absence of exogenous cytokine and could be combined with daratumumab for efficient killing of multiple myeloma and acute myeloid leukemia cells both in vitro and in vivo. This strategy has broad off-the-shelf potential for the treatment of patients with advanced cancer.

ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens

PROVIDER: GSE168936 | GEO | 2021/03/16

REPOSITORIES: GEO

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Project description:Dozens of transplants generated from pluripotent stem cells are currently in clinical trials. The creation of patient-specific iPSCs makes personalized therapy possible due to their main advantage of immunotolerance. However, some reports have claimed recently that aberrant gene expression followed by proteome alterations and neoantigen formation can result in iPSCs recognition by autologous T-cells. Meanwhile, the possibility of NK-cell activation has not been previously considered. This study focused on the comparison of autologous and allogeneic immune response to iPSC-derived cells and isogeneic parental somatic cells used for reprogramming. Here we report that cells differentiated from iPSCs can be recognized by NK-cells rather than by autologous T-cells. We observed that iPS-fibro elicited a high level of NK-cell degranulation and cytotoxicity, while isogeneic parental skin fibroblasts used to obtain iPSCs barely triggered an NK-cell response. iPSC-derivatives with B2M knockout did not cause an additional increase in NK-cell activation, although they were devoid of HLA-I, the major inhibitory molecules for NK-cells. Transcriptome analysis revealed a significant imbalance of ligands for activating and inhibitory NK-cell receptors in iPS-fibro. Compared to parental fibroblasts, iPSC-derivatives had a reduced expression of HLA-I simultaneously with an increased gene expression of major activating ligands, such as MICA, NECTIN2, and PVR. The lack of inhibitory signals might be due to insufficient maturity of cells differentiated from iPSCs. In addition, we showed that pretreatment of iPS-fibro with proinflammatory cytokine IFNγ restored the ligand imbalance, thereby reducing the degranulation and cytotoxicity of NK-cells. In summary, we showed that iPSC-derived cells can be sensitive to the cytotoxic potential of autologous NK-cells regardless of HLA-I status. Thus, the balance of ligands for NK-cell receptors should be considered prior to iPSC-based cell therapies.

Project description:Gene-expression profiles of hepatic stellate cells isolated from IL15R-alpha knockout mouse IL-15 and its high affinity receptor IL-15Rα are widely expressed in immune cells including dendritic cells and macrophages and non-immune cells such as hepatocytes, oval cells and hepatic stellate cells (HSC). IL-15 signaling has important functions in natural killers (NK), natural killers T (NKT) and cytotoxic T (CD8+T) cell homeostasis and also in liver regeneration. We hypothesized that IL-15 may have a protective role during liver fibrosis progression due to its role in NK cell homeostasis. We compared fibrosis progression in IL-15Rα knockout mice (IL-15RαKO) to wild type mice using two mechanistically distinct models, chronic carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) exposure and bile duct ligation (BDL). Enhanced fibrosis progression was observed in IL-15RαKO mice in both models. Furthermore, using congenic bone marrow transplantation (BMT), we demonstrated an unexpected role for IL-15 signaling in hepatic resident cells for the maintenance of liver NK and CD8+T cell populations. Using this approach, transplanting IL-15RKO hematopoietic cells results in NK defect that surprisingly is not reflected in a change of fibrosis progression. However, chimeric mice with defect of IL-15R on liver resident cells have similar NK defects and significant more fibrosis after CCL4 liver injury. This supports a direct protective, anti-fibrogenic role for IL-15R on one of the radioresistant liver cell populations (hepatocytes, HSC and sessile Kupffer cells). Microarray analysis of IL15RKO HSC suggests up-regulation of collagen transcripts and down-regulation of pathways involved in cell proliferation/survival. Finally, activated HSCs isolated from IL-15RKO mice show increased collagen secretion and as predicted, no changes in the growth curves. In summary, IL-15Rα signaling has an anti-fibrotic effect through both BM-derived and hepatic resident cells. These findings establish a rationale to explore IL-15 signaling in HSC as a potential therapeutic target in liver fibrogenesis.

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Harnessing Features of Adaptive NK Cells to Generate iPSC-Derived NK Cells for Enhanced Immunotherapy

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