The Targeting Effect of Cetuximab Combined with PD-L1 Blockade against EGFR-Expressing Tumors in a Tailored CD16-CAR T-Cell Reporter System

Abstract

The switchable chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) have shown many advantages in CAR T-cell therapy. However, human primary T-cells are required to evaluate antigen-specific adaptors by IFN-γ assay or FACS analysis, which limits the throughput of adaptor screening. A sensitive and robust CD16-CAR Jurkat NFAT-eGFP reporter system has been developed to assess the therapeutic efficacy of antibody-targeted CAR-T-cell by effectively evaluating the T-cell activation by various tumor cells and the impact of immune checkpoint inhibitor antibodies. This reporter system facilitates the screening of targeted antibodies in a high throughput manner for the development of improved T-cell immunotherapy.

Keywords: CD16-CAR; PD-L1; cetuximab; immunotherapy.