TET2 downregulation enhances the antitumor efficacy of CD19 CAR T cells in a preclinical model
Abstract Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy has demonstrated significant clinical efficacy in patients with hematologic cancers. However, long-term follow-up studies indicate that only 50% of patients remain in complete remission after three years. To overcome these limitations, we inves...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
BMC
2025-02-01
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| Series: | Experimental Hematology & Oncology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s40164-025-00609-8 |
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| Summary: | Abstract Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy has demonstrated significant clinical efficacy in patients with hematologic cancers. However, long-term follow-up studies indicate that only 50% of patients remain in complete remission after three years. To overcome these limitations, we investigated a strategy to enhance the antitumor activity of CAR T cells through gene modification. Based on previous research results demonstrating that CAR T cells with disrupted TET2, a methylcytosine dioxygenase, exhibit enhanced antitumor effects compared to conventional CAR T, we developed CAR T cells in which TET2 is downregulated by TET2 shRNA. Among the screened TET2-specific shRNAs, TET2-shRNA-1 was identified as the most effective sequence for gene silencing. Using this sequence, we constructed an all-in-one vector co-expressing CD19 CAR and TET2 shRNA. In vitro studies demonstrated that TET2 knockdown CD19 CAR T cells exhibited comparable cytolytic activity against CD19-positive cancer cells compared to conventional CD19 CAR T cells. However, interestingly, in xenograft mouse model using NSG mice, TET2 knockdown CAR T cells showed significantly improved antitumor activity compared to conventional CAR T cells. Our study demonstrates that shRNA-mediated knockdown of TET2 is a promising strategy to enhance the antitumor activity of CD19 CAR T cells in a preclinical model. |
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| ISSN: | 2162-3619 |