Browsing by Subject "Tumor-responsive"

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    Tumor-responsive, multifunctional CAR-NK cells cooperate with impaired autophagy to infiltrate and target glioblastoma
    (bioRxiv, 2020) Wang, Jiao; Toregrosa-Allen, Sandra; Elzey, Bennett D.; Utturkar, Sagar; Lanman, Nadia Atallah; Bernal-Crespo, Victor; Behymer, Matthew M.; Knipp, Gregory T.; Yun, Yeonhee; Veronesi, Michael C.; Sinn, Anthony L.; Pollok, Karen E.; Brutkiewicz, Randy R.; Nevel, Kathryn S.; Matosevic, Sandro; Radiology and Imaging Sciences, School of Medicine
    Tumor antigen heterogeneity, a severely immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) and lymphopenia resulting in inadequate immune intratumoral trafficking have rendered glioblastoma (GBM) highly resistant to therapy. As a result, GBM immunotherapies have failed to demonstrate sustained clinical improvements in patient overall survival (OS). To overcome these obstacles, here we describe a novel, sophisticated combinatorial platform for GBM: the first multifunctional immunotherapy based on genetically-engineered, human NK cells bearing multiple anti-tumor functions, including local tumor responsiveness, that addresses key drivers of GBM resistance to therapy: antigen escape, poor immune cell homing, and immunometabolic reprogramming of immune responses. We engineered dual-specific CAR-NK cells to bear a third functional moiety that is activated in the GBM TME and addresses immunometabolic suppression of NK cell function: a tumor-specific, locally-released antibody fragment which can inhibit the activity of CD73 independently of CAR signaling and decrease the local concentration of adenosine. The multifunctional human NK cells targeted patient-derived GBM xenografts, demonstrated local tumor site specific activity in the tissue and potently suppressed adenosine production. We also unveil a complex reorganization of the immunological profile of GBM induced by inhibiting autophagy. Pharmacologic impairment of the autophagic process not only sensitized GBM to antigenic targeting by NK cells, but promoted a chemotactic profile favorable to NK infiltration. Taken together, our study demonstrates a promising new NK cell-based combinatorial strategy that can target multiple clinically-recognized mechanisms of GBM progression simultaneously.