Tyrosine kinase signaling-independent MET-targeting with CAR-T cells

BackgroundRecent progress in cancer immunotherapy encourages the expansion of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy in solid tumors including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Overexpression of MET receptor tyrosine kinase is common in HCC; however, MET inhibitors are effective only when MET is in an active form, making patient stratification difficult. Specific MET-targeting CAR-T cells hold the promise of targeting HCC with MET overexpression regardless of signaling pathway activity.MethodsMET-specific CARs with CD28 zeta or 4-1BB zeta as co-stimulation domains were constructed. MET-CAR-T cells derived from healthy subjects (HS) and HCC patients were evaluated for their killing activity and cytokine release against HCC cells with various MET activations in vitro, and for their tumor growth inhibition in orthotopic xenograft models in vivo.ResultsMET-CAR.CD28 zeta and MET-CAR.4-1BB zeta T cells derived from both HS and HCC patients specifically killed MET-positive HCC cells. When stimulated with MET-positive HCC cells in vitro, MET-CAR.CD28 zeta T cells demonstrated a higher level of cytokine release and expression of programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) than MET-CAR.4-1BB zeta T cells. When analyzed in vivo, MET-CAR.CD28 zeta T cells more effectively inhibited HCC orthotopic tumor growth in mice when compared to MET-CAR.4-1BB zeta T cells.ConclusionWe generated and characterized MET-specific CAR-T cells for targeting HCC with MET overexpression regardless of MET activation. Compared with MET-CAR.4-1BB zeta, MET-CAR.CD28 zeta T cells showed a higher anti-HCC potency but also a higher level of T cell exhaustion. While MET-CAR.CD28 zeta is preferred for further development, overcoming the exhaustion of MET-CAR-T cells is necessary to improve their therapeutic efficacy in vivo.