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Homeostatic cytokines tune naivety and stemness of cord blood-derived transgenic T cells

Cancer Gene Therapy volume 29, pages 961–972 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

Engineered T-cell therapies have proven to be successful in cancer and their clinical effectiveness is directly correlated with the infused T-cell differentiation profile. Indeed, stem cell memory and central memory T cells proliferate and persist longer in vivo compared with more-differentiated T cells, while conferring enhanced antitumor activity. Here, we propose an optimized process using cord blood (CB) to generate minimally differentiated T-cell products in terms of phenotype, function, gene expression, and metabolism, using peripheral blood (PB)-derived T cells cultured with IL-2 as a standard. Phenotypically, CB-derived T cells, particularly CD4 T cells, are less differentiated than their PB counterparts when cultured with IL-2 or with IL-7 and IL-15. Furthermore, culture with IL-7 and IL-15 enables better preservation of less-differentiated CB-derived T cells compared with IL-2. In addition, transcriptomic and metabolic assessments of CB-derived transgenic T cells cultured with IL-7 and IL-15 point out their naivety and stemness signature. These relatively quiescent transgenic T cells are nevertheless primed for secondary stimulation and cytokine production. In conclusion, our study indicates that CB may be used as a source of early differentiated T cells to develop more effective adoptive cancer immunotherapy.

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Fig. 1: Retroviral transduction after activation results in functional cord blood (CB) and peripheral blood (PB)-derived T cells.
Fig. 2: In vitro expanded CB-derived CD4 T cells are less differentiated than PB-derived CD4 T cells when cultured with IL-2.
Fig. 3: CB-derived T cells cultured with IL-7 and IL-15 retain a less-differentiated profile than their PB counterparts.
Fig. 4: CB-derived transgenic T cells cultured with IL-7 and IL-15 retain a less-differentiated profile than those cultured with IL-2.
Fig. 5: CB-derived T cells cultured with IL-7 and IL-15 exhibit low metabolic activity.
Fig. 6: Cord blood-derived transgenic T cells cultured with IL-7 and IL-15 have a transcriptome profile consistent with high in vivo persistence and clinical effectiveness.

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Acknowledgements

We thank healthy volunteers who participated in this study and the Activité d’Ingénierie Cellulaire et Tissulaire department of the EFS for kindly providing us umbilical cord blood units that were not compliant with banking standards. We also thank Dr. Martin Larsen for his insightful assistance with biostatistical analyses. This work was supported by the Ligue Nationale contre le Cancer, and by the MiMedi project funded by BPI France (grant no. DOS0060162/00) and the European Union through the European Regional Department Fund of the Region Bourgogne Franche-Comté (grant no. FC0013440). This work was also supported by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) under the program “Investissements d’Avenir” with reference ANR-11-LABX-0021-LipSTIC, by the Region Bourgogne Franche-Comté (Seahorse XFe96 analyzer [Agilent], support to LipSTIC LabEX 2020 and MiMedI 2017). C.M. has benefited from a fellowship from Nancy Regional University Hospital.

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  1. Univ. Bourgogne Franche-Comté, INSERM, EFS BFC, UMR1098, Interactions Hôte-Greffon-Tumeur/Ingénierie Cellulaire et Génique, F-25000, Besançon, France

    Chrystel Marton, Patricia Mercier-Letondal, Romain Loyon, Olivier Adotévi, Christophe Borg, Jeanne Galaine & Yann Godet

  2. University Hospital of Besançon, Department of Medical Oncology, F-25000, Besançon, France

    Olivier Adotévi & Christophe Borg

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Contributions

C.M. performed the experiments, analyzed the data, and wrote the original draft. P.M.-L. performed the experiments, analyzed the data, and helped write the manuscript. R.L. performed the gene expression experiments and revised the manuscript. O.A. and C.B. supervised the research activity execution and revised the manuscript. J.G. contributed to the conceptualization, acquired funding, and helped write the manuscript. Y.G. contributed to the conceptualization and project administration and wrote the original draft.

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Correspondence to Chrystel Marton or Yann Godet.

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Marton, C., Mercier-Letondal, P., Loyon, R. et al. Homeostatic cytokines tune naivety and stemness of cord blood-derived transgenic T cells. Cancer Gene Ther 29, 961–972 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41417-021-00395-5

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