Constitutive signaling from an engineered IL-7 receptor promotes durable tumor elimination by tumor redirected T-cells [Research Briefs]

Successful adoptive T-cell immunotherapy of solid tumors will require improved expansion and cytotoxicity of tumor-directed T cells within tumors. Providing recombinant or transgenic cytokines may produce the desired benefits but are associated with significant toxicities, constraining clinical use. To circumvent this limitation, we constructed a constitutively signaling cytokine receptor, C7R, which potently triggers the IL-7 signaling axis but is unresponsive to extracellular cytokine. This strategy augments modified T-cell function following antigen exposure, but avoids stimulating bystander lymphocytes. Co-expressing the C7R with a tumor-directed chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) increased T-cell proliferation, survival, and anti-tumor activity during repeated exposure to tumor cells, without T cell dysfunction or autonomous T cell growth. Furthermore, C7R co-expressing CAR-T cells were active against metastatic neuroblastoma and orthotopic glioblastoma xenograft models even at cell doses that had been ineffective without C7R support. C7R may thus be able to enhance antigen-specific T-cell therapies against cancer.

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