[Research Articles] Reversible ON- and OFF-switch chimeric antigen receptors controlled by lenalidomide

Cell-based therapies are emerging as effective agents against cancer and other diseases. As autonomous "living drugs," these therapies lack precise control. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells effectively target hematologic malignancies but can proliferate rapidly and cause toxicity. We developed ON and OFF switches for CAR T cells using the clinically approved drug lenalidomide, which mediates the proteasomal degradation of several target proteins by inducing interactions between the CRL4CRBN E3 ubiquitin ligase and a C2H2 zinc finger degron motif. We performed a systematic screen to identify "super-degron" tags with enhanced sensitivity to lenalidomide-induced degradation and used these degradable tags to generate OFF-switch degradable CARs. To create an ON switch, we engineered a lenalidomide-inducible dimerization system and developed split CARs that required both lenalidomide and target antigen for activation. Subtherapeutic lenalidomide concentrations controlled the effector functions of ON- and OFF-switch CAR T cells. In vivo, ON-switch split CARs demonstrated lenalidomide-dependent antitumor activity, and OFF-switch degradable CARs were depleted by drug treatment to limit inflammatory cytokine production while retaining antitumor efficacy. Together, the data showed that these lenalidomide-gated switches are rapid, reversible, and clinically suitable systems to control transgene function in diverse gene- and cell-based therapies.

Source: Science Translational Medicine - January 6, 2021 Category: Biomedical Science Authors: Jan, M., Scarfo, I., Larson, R. C., Walker, A., Schmidts, A., Guirguis, A. A., Gasser, J. A., Słabicki, M., Bouffard, A. A., Castano, A. P., Kann, M. C., Cabral, M. L., Tepper, A., Grinshpun, D. E., Sperling, A. S., Kyung, T., Sievers, Q. L., Birnb Tags: Research Articles Source Type: research