Engineering genetic devices for in vivo control of therapeutic T cell activity triggered by the dietary molecule resveratrol

Abstract

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-engineered T cell therapies have been recognized as powerful strategies in cancer immunotherapy; however, the clinical application of CAR-T is currently constrained by severe adverse effects in patients, caused by excessive cytotoxic activity and poor T cell control. Herein, we harnessed a dietary molecule resveratrol (RES)-responsive transactivator and a transrepressor to develop a repressible transgene expression (RES_rep) device and an inducible transgene expression (RES_ind) device, respectively. After optimization, these tools enabled the control of CAR expression and CAR-mediated antitumor function in engineered human cells. We demonstrated that a resveratrol-repressible CAR expression (RES_rep-CAR) device can effectively inhibit T cell activation upon resveratrol administration in primary T cells and a xenograft tumor mouse model. Additionally, we exhibit how a resveratrol-inducible CAR expression (RES_ind-CAR) device can achieve fine-tuned and reversible control over T cell activation via a resveratrol-titratable mechanism. Furthermore, our results revealed that the presence of RES can activate RES_ind-CAR T cells with strong anticancer cytotoxicity against cells in vitro and in vivo. Our study demonstrates the utility of RES_rep and RES_ind devices as effective tools for transgene expression and illustrates the potential of RES_rep-CAR and RES_ind-CAR devices to enhance patient safety in precision cancer immunotherapies.

Keywords: CAR-T therapy; cancer immunotherapy; genetic switch; resveratrol; synthetic biology.