IL-12 reprograms CAR-expressing natural killer T cells to long-lived Th1-polarized cells with potent antitumor activity.
Journal
Nature communications
ISSN: 2041-1723
Titre abrégé: Nat Commun
Pays: England
ID NLM: 101528555
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
02 Jan 2024
02 Jan 2024
Historique:
received:
28
07
2023
accepted:
07
12
2023
medline:
4
1
2024
pubmed:
4
1
2024
entrez:
3
1
2024
Statut:
epublish
Résumé
Human natural killer T cells (NKTs) are innate-like T lymphocytes increasingly used for cancer immunotherapy. Here we show that human NKTs expressing the pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-12 (IL-12) undergo extensive and sustained molecular and functional reprogramming. Specifically, IL-12 instructs and maintains a Th1-polarization program in NKTs in vivo without causing their functional exhaustion. Furthermore, using CD62L as a marker of memory cells in human NKTs, we observe that IL-12 maintains long-term CD62L-expressing memory NKTs in vivo. Notably, IL-12 initiates a de novo programming of memory NKTs in CD62L-negative NKTs indicating that human NKTs circulating in the peripheral blood possess an intrinsic differentiation hierarchy, and that IL-12 plays a role in promoting their differentiation to long-lived Th1-polarized memory cells. Human NKTs engineered to co-express a Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) coupled with the expression of IL-12 show enhanced antitumor activity in leukemia and neuroblastoma tumor models, persist long-term in vivo and conserve the molecular signature driven by the IL-12 expression. Thus IL-12 reveals an intrinsic plasticity of peripheral human NKTs that may play a crucial role in the development of cell therapeutics.
Identifiants
pubmed: 38167707
doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-44310-y
pii: 10.1038/s41467-023-44310-y
doi:
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
89Subventions
Organisme : NIDDK NIH HHS
ID : P30 DK034987
Pays : United States
Informations de copyright
© 2024. The Author(s).
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