The Intestinal Microbiota Correlates with Response and Toxicity after CAR T Cell Therapy in Patients with B-Cell Malignancies
Authors: Smith Melody , Dai Anqi , Ghilardi Guido , Amelsberg Kimberly , Devlin Sean M , Pajarillo Raymone , Slingerland John B , Beghi Silvia , Herrera Pamela S , Giardina Paul A , Clurman Annelie , Dwomoh Emmanuel A , Armijo Gabriel K , Gomes Antonio L.C. , Littmann Eric R , Schluter Jonas , Fontana Emily , Taur Ying , Park Jae H , Palomba Maria Lia , Halton Elizabeth , Ruiz Josel D , Jain Tania , Pennisi Martina , Afuye Aishat Olaide , Perales Miguel-Angel , Freyer Craig W. , Garfall Alfred L , Gier Shannon H , Nasta Sunita , Landsburg Daniel J , Gerson James N , Svoboda Jakub , Cross Justin , Chong Elise A , Giralt Sergio A , Gill Saar , Rivière Isabelle , Porter David L , Schuster Stephen J , Sadelain Michel , Frey Noelle V , Brentjens Renier J , June Carl H , Pamer Eric G , Peled Jonathan U , Ruella Marco , van den Brink Marcel , Facciabene Andrea 
Published: November 2021

Introduction: Cellular immunotherapy with CD19-targeted chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells has provided new therapeutic options for patients with high-risk hematologic malignancies. Following this therapy, patients may experience disease relapse or CAR-mediated toxicity due to cytokine release syndrome (CRS) or immune effector cell-associated neurotoxicity syndrome (ICANS). Recent studies have confirmed that the intestinal microbiome can modulate the anti-tumor immune response to chemotherapy, immune checkpoint blockade, graft-versus-host disease after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation, and adoptive cellular therapy. The contribution of the intestinal microbiome on the function of CAR T cells in vivo both with respect to their anti-tumor function and their propensity to induce toxicities is not known. Hence, in a multi-center study we analyzed the association between clinical outcomes and (1) antibiotic exposure prior to CAR T cell infusion and (2) the composition and diversity of the fecal microbiome.

Methods and Results: We retrospectively collected clinical data and antibiotic exposures from patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL, n=91) and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL, n=137) treated with investigational or commercial CD19 CAR T cells at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) and the University of Pennsylvania (Penn). We considered any antibiotic exposure between day -30 and the day of CAR T cell infusion. We focused our analysis on anaerobe-targeting antibiotics used in the setting of neutropenic fever: piperacillin-tazobactam, imipenem-cilastatin, and meropenem (here referred to as "P-I-M"). We found that forty-seven (20.6%) of 228 patients were exposed to P-I-M in the four weeks before CAR T cell infusion. Patient characteristics at the time of CAR T cell infusion were similar between the P-I-M-exposed and not-exposed groups, although a worse performance status was observed in patients with NHL treated with P-I-M. We found that overall survival (OS) was significantly decreased following CAR T cell infusion in patients exposed to P-I-M (Fig 1A; OS HR, 2.58; 95% CI, 1.68 - 3.98; p= &lt;0.001). A subgroup analysis of the patients with NHL also demonstrated decreased OS associated with P-I-M exposure whether the costimulatory domain was CD28 or 4-1BB (data not shown). Next, we queried whether patients exposed to P-I-M had more aggressive disease. We evaluated potential confounders for the findings in uni- and multi-variable models. Importantly, exposure to P-I-M remained a strong predictor of decreased OS (HR, 2.58; 95% CI, 1.55 - 4.3; p= &lt;0.001) (Table 1). Exposure to P-I-M was also associated with increased ICANS (p= 0.023) but not CRS (p= 0.058) in patients in the combined NHL and ALL cohort as well as in patients with NHL (CRS: p= 0.154, ICANS: p= 0.002) (data not shown).

We also prospectively collected baseline fecal samples prior to cell infusion from CD19 CAR T cells recipients (n=48) at MSK and Penn. Samples were submitted for 16S RNA sequencing of the V4-V5 region on the Illumina MiSeq platform and the amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) were annotated according to the NCBI 16S database using BLAST. In comparison to healthy controls (n=30), we found that alpha-diversity was significantly lower in fecal samples from CAR T cell patients (p= 0.0023, Fig 1B) and the composition of fecal samples was significantly different (p= &lt;0.001, Fig 1C). Finally, linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe) identified an increased abundance of Lachnospiraceae, Ruminococcaceae, and Bacteroidaceae in patients who achieved a Day 100 complete response (CR) and those who experienced CAR-mediated toxicity (data not shown).

Conclusion: Our results suggest that exposure to antibiotics, in particular P-I-M, in the four weeks before therapy was associated with worse survival. Profiling of the baseline fecal microbiome samples by 16S revealed that CD19 CAR T cell patients presented with evidence of an altered fecal microbiome as measured by lower alpha-diversity and a composition that is distinct from that of healthy controls. Finally, we identified bacterial taxa that were associated with Day 100 CR and CAR-mediated toxicity. Our findings indicate that the intestinal microbiome can affect the efficacy of CD19 CAR T cell therapy and provides a rationale to target the intestinal microbiome to improve clinical outcomes of patients treated with cellular therapies.

Figure 1 Figure 1.

Disclosures

Smith: Janssen: Consultancy, Honoraria. Gomes: Xbiome: Current Employment. Schluter: Postbiotics Plus LLC: Other: cofounder. Park: Kura Oncology: Consultancy; BMS: Consultancy; Servier: Consultancy; Autolus: Consultancy; Curocel: Consultancy; Artiva: Consultancy; Kite Pharma: Consultancy; Amgen: Consultancy; Novartis: Consultancy; Affyimmune: Consultancy; Intellia: Consultancy; Innate Pharma: Consultancy; Minerva: Consultancy; PrecisionBio: Consultancy. Palomba: Pharmacyclics: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Kite Pharmaceuticals: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Jain: Targeted Healthcare Communications: Consultancy; Bristol Myers Squibb: Other: for advisory board participation; CareDx: Other: for advisory board participation; CTI Biopharma: Research Funding; Syneos Health: Research Funding. Pennisi: Gilead Sciences: Consultancy. Perales: Miltenyi Biotec: Honoraria, Other; Novartis: Honoraria, Other; Omeros: Honoraria; NexImmune: Honoraria; Bristol-Myers Squibb: Honoraria; Merck: Honoraria; Celgene: Honoraria; Takeda: Honoraria; Kite/Gilead: Honoraria, Other; Medigene: Honoraria; Nektar Therapeutics: Honoraria, Other; Cidara: Honoraria; Servier: Honoraria; Sellas Life Sciences: Honoraria; Karyopharm: Honoraria; MorphoSys: Honoraria; Equilium: Honoraria; Incyte: Honoraria, Other. Garfall: Amgen: Honoraria; CRISPR Therapeutics: Research Funding; GlaxoSmithKline: Honoraria; Janssen: Honoraria, Research Funding; Novartis: Research Funding; Tmunity: Research Funding. Landsburg: Triphase: Research Funding; Morphosys: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Karyopharm: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Other: DSMB member; Incyte: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; ADCT: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Curis: Research Funding; Takeda: Research Funding. Gerson: Kite: Consultancy; Pharmacyclics: Consultancy; Abbvie: Consultancy; TG Therapeutics: Consultancy. Svoboda: Imbrium: Consultancy; Genmab: Consultancy; Astra Zeneca: Consultancy, Research Funding; Atara: Consultancy; BMS: Consultancy, Research Funding; Adaptive: Consultancy, Research Funding; Incyte: Research Funding; Merck: Research Funding; Pharmacyclics: Consultancy, Research Funding; Seattle Genetics: Consultancy, Research Funding; TG: Research Funding. Giralt: AMGEN: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; PFIZER: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; BMS: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; SANOFI: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; CELGENE: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; JAZZ: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; GSK: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; JENSENN: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Actinnum: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Gill: Interius Biotherapeutics: Current holder of stock options in a privately-held company, Research Funding; Novartis: Other: licensed intellectual property, Research Funding; Carisma Therapeutics: Current holder of stock options in a privately-held company, Research Funding. Rivière: FloDesign Sonics: Other: Provision of Services; Centre for Commercialization of Cancer Immunotherapy: Other: Provision of Services; Fate Therapeutics: Other: Provision of Services, Patents & Royalties; The Georgia Tech Research Corporation (GTRC): Other: Provision of Services (uncompensated); Juno Therapeutics: Patents & Royalties. Porter: Kite/Gilead: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Wiley and Sons Publishing: Honoraria; Tmunity: Patents & Royalties; Novartis: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Patents & Royalties, Research Funding; Incyte: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Janssen: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; ASH: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; DeCart: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Genentech: Current equity holder in publicly-traded company, Ended employment in the past 24 months; American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy: Honoraria; National Marrow Donor Program: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Schuster: Abbvie: Consultancy, Research Funding; Acerta Pharma: Consultancy; AstraZeneca: Consultancy; Adaptive Biotechnologies: Research Funding; BeiGene: Consultancy; Celgene: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; DTRM: Research Funding; Genetech: Consultancy, Research Funding; Roche: Consultancy, Research Funding; Incyte: Research Funding; Juno Theraputics: Consultancy, Research Funding; Loxo Oncology: Consultancy; Merck: Research Funding; Nordic Nanovector: Consultancy; Novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria, Patents & Royalties, Research Funding; Pharmaclcyclics: Research Funding; Tessa Theraputics: Consultancy; TG Theraputics: Research Funding. Sadelain: NHLBI Gene Therapy Resource Program: Other: Provision of Services (uncompensated); Fate Therapeutics: Other: Provision of Services (uncompensated), Patents & Royalties; Atara Biotherapeutics: Patents & Royalties; Ceramedix: Patents & Royalties; Mnemo Therapeutics: Patents & Royalties; Takeda Pharmaceuticals: Other: Provision of Services, Patents & Royalties; St. Jude Children's Research Hospital: Other: Provision of Services; Juno Therapeutics: Patents & Royalties; Minerva Biotechnologies: Patents & Royalties. Frey: Novartis: Research Funding; Kite Pharma: Consultancy; Sana Biotechnology: Consultancy; Syndax Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy. Brentjens: Gracell Biotechnologies, Inc: Consultancy, Ended employment in the past 24 months; BMS: Consultancy, Patents & Royalties, Research Funding; sanofi: Patents & Royalties; Caribou: Patents & Royalties. June: AC Immune, DeCART, BluesphereBio, Carisma, Cellares, Celldex, Cabaletta, Poseida, Verismo, Ziopharm: Consultancy; Novartis: Patents & Royalties; Tmunity, DeCART, BluesphereBio, Carisma, Cellares, Celldex, Cabaletta, Poseida, Verismo, Ziopharm: Current equity holder in publicly-traded company. Pamer: Diversigen: Other: Advisory board; Bristol Myers Squibb, Celgene, Seres Therapeutics, MedImmune, Novartis and Ferring Pharmaceuticals: Honoraria. Peled: DaVolterra: Consultancy; MaaT Pharma: Consultancy; CSL Behring: Consultancy; Seres Therapeutics: Research Funding. Ruella: BMS, BAYER, GSK: Consultancy; Novartis: Patents & Royalties; AbClon: Consultancy, Research Funding; Tmunity: Patents & Royalties; viTToria biotherapeutics: Research Funding. van den Brink: WindMILTherapeutics: Honoraria; Pluto Therapeutics: Current holder of stock options in a privately-held company, Other: has consulted, received honorarium from or participated in advisory boards ; Priothera: Research Funding; Forty-Seven, Inc.: Honoraria; MagentaTherapeutics: Honoraria; GlaskoSmithKline: Other: has consulted, received honorarium from or participated in advisory boards; Ceramedix: Other: has consulted, received honorarium from or participated in advisory boards ; Merck & Co, Inc: Honoraria; Synthekine (Spouse): Other: has consulted, received honorarium from or participated in advisory boards; Kite Pharmaceuticals: Other; Amgen: Honoraria; Frazier Healthcare Partners: Honoraria; Seres: Other: Honorarium, Intellectual Property Rights, Research Fundingand Stock Options; Rheos: Honoraria; Therakos: Honoraria; Jazz Pharmaceuticals: Honoraria; Notch Therapeutics: Honoraria; Nektar Therapeutics: Honoraria; Wolters Kluwer: Patents & Royalties; Juno Therapeutics: Other; DKMS (nonprofit): Other; Pharmacyclics: Other; Da Volterra: Other: has consulted, received honorarium from or participated in advisory boards; Novartis (Spouse): Other: has consulted, received honorarium from or participated in advisory boards; Lygenesis: Other: has consulted, received honorarium from or participated in advisory boards .