Derivation of CD7-targeted chimeric antigen receptor (7CAR) T cells often requires genetic manipulations to ablate the CD7 gene or block CD7 cell surface expression. Our novel approach deriving naturally selected 7CAR (NS7CAR) T cells from bulk T cells was able to overcome major fratricide by minimizing accessible CD7 epitopes. The CD7 molecules of NS7CAR T cells were masked or sequestered by the CD7-targeting CAR. Compared with sorted CD7-negative 7CAR T cells and CD7 knocked-out 7CAR T cells, NS7CAR exhibited similar or superior therapeutic properties, including a greater percentage of CAR+ cells and a higher proportion of CD8+ central memory T cells. In our first-in-human phase 1 trial (NCT04572308), 20 patients with relapsed/refractory T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) (n = 14) and T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma (T-LBL) (n = 6) were treated with NS7CAR. Nineteen patients achieved minimal residual disease negative complete remission (CR) in the bone marrow (BM) by day 28, and 5 of 9 patients achieved extramedullary CR. With a median follow-up of 142.5 (32-311) days after infusion, 14 patients subsequently received allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (10 consolidative, 4 salvage) following NS7CAR infusion with no relapses to date. Of the 6 patients who did not receive a transplant, 4 remained in CR at a median time of 54 (32-180) days. Eighteen patients experienced mild cytokine release syndrome (CRS) (grade ≤2), 1 developed grade 3 CRS, and 2 had grade 1 neurotoxicity. These results indicate that NS7CAR-T therapy is a safe and highly effective treatment for T-ALL/LBL. More patients and longer follow-up are needed for validation.
© 2022 by The American Society of Hematology.