Cell Reports (May 2024)

Precision off-the-shelf natural killer cell therapies for oncology with logic-gated gene circuits

  • Nicholas W. Frankel,
  • Han Deng,
  • Gozde Yucel,
  • Marcus Gainer,
  • Nelia Leemans,
  • Alice Lam,
  • Yongshuai Li,
  • Michelle Hung,
  • Derrick Lee,
  • Chen-Ting Lee,
  • Andrew Banicki,
  • Mengxi Tian,
  • Niran Almudhfar,
  • Lawrence Naitmazi,
  • Assen Roguev,
  • Seunghee Lee,
  • Wilson Wong,
  • Russell Gordley,
  • Timothy K. Lu,
  • Brian S. Garrison

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 43, no. 5
p. 114145

Abstract

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Summary: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is an aggressive disease with a poor prognosis (5-year survival rate of 30.5% in the United States). Designing cell therapies to target AML is challenging because no single tumor-associated antigen (TAA) is highly expressed on all cancer subpopulations. Furthermore, TAAs are also expressed on healthy cells, leading to toxicity risk. To address these targeting challenges, we engineer natural killer (NK) cells with a multi-input gene circuit consisting of chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) controlled by OR and NOT logic gates. The OR gate kills a range of AML cells from leukemic stem cells to blasts using a bivalent CAR targeting FLT3 and/or CD33. The NOT gate protects healthy hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) using an inhibitory CAR targeting endomucin, a protective antigen unique to healthy HSCs. NK cells with the combined OR-NOT gene circuit kill multiple AML subtypes and protect primary HSCs, and the circuit also works in vivo.

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