Nature Communications (Jan 2022)

CAR T cells redirected to cell surface GRP78 display robust anti-acute myeloid leukemia activity and do not target hematopoietic progenitor cells

  • Nikhil Hebbar,
  • Rebecca Epperly,
  • Abishek Vaidya,
  • Unmesha Thanekar,
  • Sarah E. Moore,
  • Masayuki Umeda,
  • Jing Ma,
  • Sagar L. Patil,
  • Deanna Langfitt,
  • Sujuan Huang,
  • Cheng Cheng,
  • Jeffery M. Klco,
  • Stephen Gottschalk,
  • M. Paulina Velasquez

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-28243-6
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 13, no. 1
pp. 1 – 14

Abstract

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There is an unmet need to discover suitable targets for CAR-T therapy in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Here the authors show that GRP78, a key regulator of the unfolded protein response, is highly expressed on the surface of primary AML blasts, but not on normal lymphocytes and hematopoietic progenitor cells, and that GRP78-CAR T have anti-AML activity in preclinical models.