Heeke, D. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2022

T-cell potential for CD19-expressing malignancies revealed by multi-dimensional single-cell profiling

Adoptive immunotherapy with T cells expressing chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) for B-cell malignancies serves as a model for identifying subsets with superior clinical activity. We profiled the infusion products (IP) of 16 patients with large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL) using an integrated suite of single-cell assays to reveal the therapeutic potential of CD19-specific CAR+ T cells. Timelapse imaging microscopy in nanowell grids (TIMING) profiling revealed that T cells from responders showed migration (persistent motion for at least one body length), and migration was associated with serial killing capacity. In addition, confocal microscopy revealed that migration is linearly correlated with both mitochondrial volume and lysosomal volume; and scRNA-seq demonstrated that T cells from responders were enriched in pathways related to T-cell killing, migration and actin cytoskeleton, and TCR clustering. A marker-free sorting strategy enriched T cells with migratory capacity and validated serial killing, bioenergetics, and in vivo efficacy. In aggregate, we demonstrate that migration is a cell-intrinsic biomarker independent of CAR design or biomanufacturing, desired in the bioactivity of CAR+ T cells associated with clinical antitumor efficacy.

immunology↗

bioRxiv2022

Multidimensional single-cell analysis identifies a role of CD2-CD58 interactions for clinical antitumor T cell responses

The in vivo persistence of adoptively transferred T cells is predictive of anti-tumor response. Identifying functional properties of infused T cells that lead to in vivo persistence and tumor eradication has remained elusive. We profiled CD19-specific CAR T cells that comprise the infusion products used to treat large B cell lymphomas using high-throughput single-cell technologies based on Timelapse Imaging Microscopy In Nanowell Grids (TIMING) that integrates killing, cytokine secretion, and transcriptional profiling. Our results show that the directional migration of CD19-specific CAR T cells is correlated with polyfunctionality. We identified that CD2 on T cells is associated with directional migration and that the interaction between CD2 on T cells and CD58 on lymphoma cells accelerates killing and serial killing. Consistent with this, we observed elevated CD58 expression on pre-treatment tumor samples in patients with relapsed or refractory large B cell lymphomas treated with CD19-specific CAR T cell therapy was associated with complete clinical response and survival. These results highlight the importance of studying dynamic T-cell tumor cell interactions in identifying optimal antitumor responses. KEY POINTS- Profiling patient infusion products revealed that polyfunctional CAR T cells show directional migration, which is associated with higher CD2 expression - The ligand for CD2, CD58 is expressed at higher levels in the tumors of lymphoma patients who respond better to CAR T cell treatment

immunology↗