Abstract
NK cells, especially FDA-approved NK-92 cells, could be used for TCR engineering owing to their specialized cytotoxicity against tumors, safety profile and potential use as an off-the-shelf cellular therapy. The TCR complex requires assembly of TCR- α/ β chains with CD3 molecules (CD3δ, CD3γ, CD3ε, CD3ζ) to be correctly expressed at the cell membrane, and yet NK cells lack expression of these CD3 subunits besides CD3ζ. Since transmembrane regions of TCR α and β chains are involved in TCR complex assembly, transmembrane regions of TCR replaced by CD28 transmembrane domain could result in the expression of TCR independent of its companion CD3 subunits. However, since the absence of CD3 signaling components can influence the transmission of TCR signals to NK cells, it is necessary to add the signaling molecules of NK cells followed by CD28 transmembrane domain. Both CD3ζ and DAP10 play an important role in the activation and cytotoxicity of NK cells; moreover, 2B4 and 4-1BB are the main costimulatory molecules in NK cells. Therefore, we designed a chimeric TCR that consisted of the extracellular domains of the TCR α and β chains specific for NYESO-1 fused to the CD28 transmembrane domain followed by the 41BB and CD3ζ signaling domains as well as the 2B4 and DAP10 signaling domain, respectively. The chimeric TCR genetically engineered NK-92 cells exhibit antigen-specific recognition and lysis of tumor cells both in vitro and in vivo. In addition, TCR-28-2B10/BBζ can be feasibly expressed in primary NK cells and exhibit antigen-reactive recognition and effect function. The overall encouraging data highlight the value of NK-92 cells and primary NK cells engineered to express therapeutic chimeric TCR for adoptive immunotherapies.
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The datasets used or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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This work was supported by Natural Science Foundation of China [Grant No 81972880–ZL, Grant No 82003246–CZ]; Capital’s Funds for Health Improvement and Research (Grant No 2022-1-1022–ZL, 2020-4-1028–CZ); Open Project funded by Key laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research, Ministry of Education/Beijing (2022 Open Project-1); Cooperation Fund of Beijing Cancer Hospital and Beijing Institute for Cancer Research; Clinical Medicine Plus X—Young Scholars Project (PKU2022LCXQ036), Peking University, the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.
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ZML, BTY and CTZ designed the research; SCL, CTZ, LYS, XT and YFX conducted experiments; SCL, CTZ, and ZML analyzed data; and CTZ, ZML and SCL wrote the paper.
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This project was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Peking University School of Oncology, China. The patient gave written informed consent for the use of their tumor tissues for research purposes.
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Li, S., Zhang, C., Shen, L. et al. TCR extracellular domain genetically linked to CD28, 2B4/41BB and DAP10/CD3ζ -engineered NK cells mediates antitumor effects. Cancer Immunol Immunother 72, 769–774 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00262-022-03275-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00262-022-03275-5