Chimeric-antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has shown remarkable efficacy against hematologic tumors. Yet, CAR T-cell therapy has had little success against solid tumors due to obstacles presented by the tumor… Click to show full abstract
Chimeric-antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has shown remarkable efficacy against hematologic tumors. Yet, CAR T-cell therapy has had little success against solid tumors due to obstacles presented by the tumor microenvironment (TME) of these cancers. Here, we show that CAR T cells armored with the engineered IL2 superkine Super2 and IL33 were able to promote tumor control as a single-agent therapy. IFN and perforin were dispensable for the effects of Super2 and IL33 armored CAR T cells. Super2 and IL33 synergized to shift leukocyte proportions in the TME and to recruit and activate a broad repertoire of endogenous innate and adaptive immune cells including tumor-specific T cells. However, depletion of CD8+ T cells or NK cells did not disrupt tumor control, suggesting that broad immune activation compensated for loss of individual cell subsets. Thus, we have shown that Super2 and IL33 CAR T cells can promote antitumor immunity in multiple solid tumor models and can potentially overcome antigen loss, highlighting the potential of this universal CAR T-cell platform for treatment of solid tumors.
               
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