Abstract 5258: The immunomodulatory effects of daratumumab-based therapy on functional high-risk relapse/refractory multiple myeloma (fHRMM) patients enrolled in the MyDRUG trial
Authors: Chaitanya R. Acharya, Darwin D'souza, Reyka Jayasinghe, Mark Hamilton, Zhihong Zhihong, Seunghee Kim-Schulze, Hearn J. Cho, Shaji Kumar, George Mulligan
Journal: Cancer Research (2025)

Abstract Background: The goal of this study is to evaluate the immunomodulatory effects of daratumumab-(anti-CD38)-based therapy on fHRMM patients enrolled in the MMRF sponsored MyDRUG umbrella clinical trial (NCT03732703) over the duration of therapy and to correlate immune changes with patient response. Methods: fHRMM who had received 1-3 prior therapies (exposed to at least one proteasome inhibitor and an IMiD) were given a combination of daratumumab (D), ixazomib (I), pomalidomide (P) and dexamethasone (d) (D-IPd) quadruplet therapy. Bone marrow (BM) aspirates were then collected from patients prior to therapy (BL), after 2 cycles (EOC2), after 4 cycles (EOC4) of the quadruplet therapy and at the end of treatment or disease progression (EOT). Immune and tumor fractions were enriched by CD138 selection. Here, CD138- bone marrow mononuclear cells were isolated and transcriptionally profiled by scRNAseq and scTCRseq. Results: Single-cell RNA and TCR profiles were generated from ∼90,000 cells across 41 samples from 16 subjects. scRNAseq identified CD3+ T cells, NK cells, classical and non-classical monocytes and B cells. CD8+ T cells were further resolved into their subsets including precursor (TPEX) and terminally exhausted T cells (TEX) within the bone marrow microenvironment. Within the CD8+ T cell compartment, an expansion of the effector memory (TEM) cell population was observed following 2-cycles of therapy (EOC2). However, this TEM expansion was not sustained at timepoint EOC4. Towards the end of therapy, enrichment of precursors to exhausted and terminal dysfunctional effector memory cells (TEMRA) was observed. Subjects with partial (PR), very good partial (VGPR) and complete (CR) best overall responses showed an initial increase in TEM cells followed by a slow expansion of TEX and TEMRA cells over time. Longitudinal tracking of T cell clonality showed preferential progressive expansion of TEMRA cells after the therapy. We mapped hyperexpanded (more than 16 copies) clonotypes, presumed to be tumor-reactive, to various CD8+ T cell subsets. These hyperexpanded clonotypes mapped to the TEMRA, TEX and TEM CD8+ T cells. Analysis of TCR repertoires clonality and diversity also demonstrated a reduced richness and increased clonality of CD8+ TCRs in responders. Conclusions: Paired single cell RNA and TCR sequencing of BM T cells from RRMM patients receiving D-IPd quadruplet therapy revealed a selective expansion of clonotypic CD8+ T cells with a clonal replacement of BM exhausted clonotypes by dysfunctional circulating CD8+ T cells in responders over time. Citation Format: Chaitanya R. Acharya, Darwin D'souza, Reyka Jayasinghe, Mark Hamilton, Zhihong Zhihong, Seunghee Kim-Schulze, Hearn J. Cho, Shaji Kumar, George Mulligan. The immunomodulatory effects of daratumumab-based therapy on functional high-risk relapse/refractory multiple myeloma (fHRMM) patients enrolled in the MyDRUG trial [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2025; Part 1 (Regular Abstracts); 2025 Apr 25-30; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2025;85(8_Suppl_1):Abstract nr 5258.