CELL INTELLIGENCE · 肿瘤细胞治疗研究

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells targeting glypican-3 (GPC3) demonstrated early signs of therapeutic efficacy to hepatocellular carcinoma patients with a risk of cytokine release syndrome (CRS). Several adoptive cell therapies (ACTs) with T cells using the natural T cell receptor (TCR) signaling induced more efficient antitumor function and reduced cytokine production relative to CARs in solid tumors. To improve the efficacy and safety of GPC3-targeted ACTs, T cells were modified with anti-GPC3 single-chain fragment variable(sFv) linked to CD3 , which could be incorporated into the entire TCR/CD3 complex to form chimeric sFv-CD3 receptor (sFv- ). sFv- T cells showed competitive antitumor activity and lower cytokine release compared to 28 or BB CAR T cells, which may be ascribed to moderately less activated Ca 2+ -calcineurin-NFAT signaling pathway. We further generated murine sFv- T cells with interleukin-7 co-expression (7sFv- ) to promote T cell survival and to mobilize the endogenous immune system. In immunocompetent mouse models, 7sFv- T cells showed superior persistence, antitumor efficacy, and immunological memory while preserving the low production of cytokines associated with CRS compared to conventional sFv- T cells. These results indicate that GPC3-specific 7sFv- T cells could serve as a promising therapeutic strategy for solid tumors.