Article
作者: Carturan, Alberto ; Cohen, Ivan ; Bochi-Layec, Audrey C ; Liu, Shan ; Porazzi, Patrizia ; Wang, Michael ; Ruella, Marco ; Patel, Ruchi P ; Chung, Junho ; Harris, Jaryse ; Vella, Laura A ; Lee, Yoon ; Pajarillo, Raymone ; Guruprasad, Puneeth ; Lee, Jong-Seo ; Shestova, Olga ; Joshi, Akshita ; Angelos, Mathew ; Zhang, Yunlin ; Svoboda, Jakub ; Ugwuanyi, Ositadimma H ; Sauter, Christopher T ; Liu, Dongfang ; Paruzzo, Luca ; Schuster, Stephen J ; Kim, Jong Hoon ; Kim, Ki-Hyun ; Cho, Jong Hyun ; Chen, Linhui ; Gupta, Aasha ; Rodriguez, Jesse ; Hong, Seok Jae Albert ; Kammerman, Shane ; Kumashie, Kingsley Gideon ; Shestov, Maksim ; Lee, Yong Gu ; Ballard, Hatcher J ; Ghilardi, Guido
The efficacy of T cell-based immunotherapies is limited by immunosuppressive pressures in the tumor microenvironment. Here we show a predominant role for the interaction between BTLA on effector T cells and HVEM (TNFRSF14) on immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment cells, namely regulatory T cells. High BTLA expression in chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells correlated with poor clinical response to treatment. Therefore, we deleted BTLA in CAR T cells and show improved tumor control and persistence in models of lymphoma and solid malignancies. Mechanistically, BTLA inhibits CAR T cells via recruitment of tyrosine phosphatases SHP-1 and SHP-2, upon trans engagement with HVEM. BTLA knockout thus promotes CAR signaling and subsequently enhances effector function. Overall, these data indicate that the BTLA-HVEM axis is a crucial immune checkpoint in CAR T cell immunotherapy and warrants the use of strategies to overcome this barrier.