Abstract 1780: TCR-T and CAR-T cells targeting HLA-A2/MAGEA4 demonstrate differential tumor control, reflecting co-stimulatory signaling requirements
Authors: Decker Corinne E. , Idun Jacqueline , Mohrs Katja , Meagher Thomas , Bray Kevin , Petriv Iryna , Golas Jonathon , Helms Timothy , Ajithdoss Dharani , Thurston Gavin , Lin John , Kirshner Jessica R. , DiLillo David J. 
Published: April 2023

The clinical success of cancer immunotherapy, including engineered T cell therapies, has revolutionized treatment paradigms and patient outcomes. While hematological tumors have benefited most from cell therapy approaches, the treatment of solid tumors remains a challenge in part due to the limited availability of abundant and tumor-specific cell-surface antigens. Peptides derived from intracellular tumor-specific proteins, such as cancer-testis antigens (CTAs), that are presented via HLA (pHLA) enable a therapeutic opportunity to target tumors while sparing normal tissue. Surface-accessible pHLA complexes may be targeted with engineered T cell receptors or TCR mimetic antibodies reformatted to chimeric antigen receptors (CARs). Using MAGE-A4 as a model CTA, we compared engineered human TCR- and CAR-T cells head-to-head to understand how to best deploy these modalities. To this end, we generated fully-human, HLA-A2/MAGE-A4(230-239)-specific TCR and CARs harboring CD28/CD3z or 41BB/CD3z signaling domains. TCR and CAR-T cells demonstrated similar robust on-target reactivity, cytokine release, and target cell lysis in vitro. In vivo, each of these modalities showed potent, dose-dependent anti-tumor efficacy against human xenograft tumors expressing low, endogenous levels (~500 cell-surface copies) of the MAGE-A4 peptide. However, differences emerged when we examined the in vivo kinetics and durability of tumor suppression. MAGE-A4 CD28/z CAR-T demonstrated the most rapid and potent tumor clearance, while the 41BB/z CAR-T showed delayed but ultimately complete efficacy. TCR-T cells induced tumor regressions during the first 2 weeks of treatment, but this response was transient and followed by tumor relapse. These differential responses correlated with early, modest accumulation of CD28/z CAR-T in line with fast tumor clearance. 41BB/z CAR-T showed a remarkable ~800-fold expansion in the tumor versus limited in vivo TCR-T proliferation. Mechanistically, the MAGE-A4 TCR induced strong CD3 proximal signaling associated with a greater induction of T cell dysfunction markers and limited cytotoxic potential in vitro. However, stimulating 41BB signaling pathways in the MAGE-A4 TCR T cells augmented long-term cytotoxicity. These data demonstrate that tumor-specific pHLA complexes can be potently targeted by both TCR and CAR-T cells, and that co-stimulatory signaling is necessary to mediate durable anti-tumor activity.

Citation Format: Corinne E. Decker, Jacqueline Idun, Katja Mohrs, Thomas Meagher, Kevin Bray, Iryna Petriv, Jonathon Golas, Timothy Helms, Dharani Ajithdoss, Gavin Thurston, John Lin, Jessica R. Kirshner, David J. DiLillo. TCR-T and CAR-T cells targeting HLA-A2/MAGEA4 demonstrate differential tumor control, reflecting co-stimulatory signaling requirements [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 1780.