Chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CAR-T cells) have emerged as a powerful treatment option for individuals with B cell malignancies but have yet to achieve success in treating acute myeloid leukemia (AML) due to a lack of safe targets. Here we leveraged an atlas of publicly available RNA-sequencing data of over 500,000 single cells from 15 individuals with AML and tissue from 9 healthy individuals for prediction of target antigens that are expressed on malignant cells but lacking on healthy cells, including T cells. Aided by this high-resolution, single-cell expression approach, we computationally identify colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor and cluster of differentiation 86 as targets for CAR-T cell therapy in AML. Functional validation of these established CAR-T cells shows robust in vitro and in vivo efficacy in cell line- and human-derived AML models with minimal off-target toxicity toward relevant healthy human tissues. This provides a strong rationale for further clinical development.
Institute(s)Unit for Clinical Pharmacology (KKG-EKLiP) Institute of AI for Health (AIH) Research Unit Apoptosis in Hematopoietic Stem Cells (AHS)
GrantsBundesministerium fur Bildung und Forschung m4-Award of the Bavarian Ministry for Economical Affairs Go-Bio-Initiative Institutional Strategy LMUexcellent of LMU Munich (within the framework of the German Excellence Initiative) Ernst Jung Stiftung Wilhelm-Sander-Stiftung German Cancer Aid Forderprogramm fur Forschung und Lehre der Medizinischen Fakultat der LMU Marie Sklodowska-Curie Training Network for Optimizing Adoptive T Cell Therapy of Cancer - Horizon 2020 program of the European Union Marie Sklodowska-Curie Training Network for the Immunotherapy of Cancer (IMMUTRAIN) - Horizon 2020 program of the European Union Melanoma Research Alliance international doctoral program 'i-Target: immunotargeting of cancer' - Elite Network of Bavaria Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) Bavarian Cancer Research Center Else Kroner-Fresenius-Stiftung Marie Curie Actions (MSCA)
DFG (German Research Foundation) European Research Council under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program DKTK School of Oncology Munich Clinician Scientist Program Else Kroner-Fresenius Clinician Scientist Program Cancer Immunotherapy European Research Council Alzheimer's Association DFG (German Research Foundation) under Germany's Excellence Strategy within the framework of the Munich Cluster for Systems Neurology Hector Foundation Bayerische Forschungsstiftung (BAYCELLator) Deutsche Jose Carreras Leukamie Stiftung Fritz-Bender Foundation DFG Volkswagen Foundation