| First Author | Hoseini SS | Year | 2015 |
| Journal | Leukemia | Volume | 29 |
| Issue | 7 | Pages | 1530-42 |
| PubMed ID | 25652739 | Mgi Jnum | J:222596 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:5644911 | Doi | 10.1038/leu.2015.20 |
| Citation | Hoseini SS, et al. (2015) Inducible T-cell receptor expression in precursor T cells for leukemia control. Leukemia 29(7):1530-42 |
| abstractText | Co-transplantation of hematopoietic stem cells with those engineered to express leukemia-reactive T-cell receptors (TCRs) and differentiated ex vivo into precursor T cells (preTs) may reduce the risk of leukemia relapse. As expression of potentially self-(leukemia-) reactive TCRs will lead to negative selection or provoke autoimmunity upon thymic maturation, we investigated a novel concept whereby TCR expression set under the control of an inducible promoter would allow timely controlled TCR expression. After in vivo maturation and gene induction, preTs developed potent anti-leukemia effects. Engineered preTs provided protection even after repeated leukemia challenges by giving rise to effector and central memory cells. Importantly, adoptive transfer of TCR-transduced allogeneic preTs mediated anti-leukemia effect without evoking graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Earlier transgene induction forced CD8(+) T-cell development was required to obtain a mature T-cell subset of targeted specificity, allowed engineered T cells to efficiently pass positive selection and abrogated the endogenous T-cell repertoire. Later induction favored CD4 differentiation and failed to produce a leukemia-reactive population emphasizing the dominant role of positive selection. Taken together, we provide new functional insights for the employment of TCR-engineered precursor cells as a controllable immunotherapeutic modality with significant anti-leukemia activity. |