Biology subjects

Barish, M.

Publications and source records attributed to Barish, M..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Study of combination CAR T-cell treatment for glioblastoma using mathematical modeling

Glioblastoma is a highly aggressive and difficult-to-treat brain cancer that resists conventional therapies. Recent advances in chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy have shown promising potential for treating glioblastoma; however, achieving optimal efficacy remains challenging due to tumor antigen heterogeneity, the tumor microenvironment, and T-cell exhaustion. In this study, we developed a mathematical model of CAR T-cell therapy for glioblastoma to explore combinations of CAR T-cell treatments that take into account the spatial heterogeneity of antigen expression. Our hybrid model, created using the multicellular modeling platform PhysiCell, couples partial differential equations that describe the tumor microenvironment with agent-based models for glioblastoma and CAR T-cells. The model captures cell-to-cell interactions between the glioblastoma cells and CAR T-cells throughout treatment, focusing on three target antigens: IL-13R2, HER2, and EGFR. We analyze tumor antigen expression heterogeneity informed by expression patterns identified from human tissues and investigate patient-specific combination CAR T-cell treatment strategies. Our model demonstrates that an early intervention is the most effective approach, especially in glioblastoma tumors characterized by mixed antigen expression. However, in tissues with clustered antigen patterns, we find that sequential administration with specific CAR T-cell types can achieve efficacy comparable to simultaneous administration. In addition, spatially targeted delivery of CAR T-cells to specific tumor regions with matching antigen is an effective strategy as well. Our model provides a valuable platform for developing patient-specific CAR T-cell treatment plans with the potential to optimize scheduling and locations of CAR T-cell injections based on individual antigen expression profiles.

systems biology↗

bioRxiv2020

Chlorotoxin Redirects Chimeric Antigen Receptor T Cells for Specific and Effective Targeting of Glioblastoma

While chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells have demonstrated antitumor activity against glioblastoma (GBM), tumor heterogeneity remains a critical challenge. To more effectively target heterogeneous GBMs, we report the development of a novel peptide-based CAR exploiting the GBM-binding potential of chlorotoxin (CLTX). CLTX bound a greater proportion of tumor cells than GBM-associated antigens EGFR, HER2 and IL13R2. CAR T cells bearing CLTX as the targeting domain (CLTX-CAR), mediated potent in vitro and in vivo anti-GBM activity, and efficiently targeted tumors lacking expression of other GBM-associated antigens. Importantly, CLTX-CAR T cells exhibited no observable off-target effector activity against normal cells, or when adoptively transferred into mice. Effective targeting by CLTX-CAR T cells required cell surface expression of matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2). Our results are the first demonstration of a peptide toxin utilized as a CAR targeting domain, expanding the repertoire of tumor-selective CAR T cells with the potential to reduce antigen escape. One Sentence SummaryChimeric antigen receptors incorporating chlorotoxin as the tumor targeting domain recognize and kill glioblastoma with high specificity and potency.

immunology↗

bioRxiv2019

A mathematical modeling approach to explore kinetics of Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T-cell Response in glioma: the CARRGO model

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has shown promise in the treatment of hematological cancers and is currently being investigated for solid tumors including high-grade glioma brain tumors. There is a desperate need to quantitatively study the factors that contribute to the efficacy of CAR T-cell therapy in solid tumors. In this work we use a mathematical model of predator-prey dynamics to explore the kinetics of CAR T-cell killing in glioma: the Chimeric Antigen Receptor t-cell treatment Response in GliOma (CARRGO) model. The model includes rates of cancer cell proliferation, CAR T-cell killing, CAR T-cell proliferation and exhaustion, and CAR T-cell persistence. We use patient-derived and engineered cancer cell lines with an in vitro real-time cell analyzer to parameterize the CARRGO model. We observe that CAR T-cell dose correlates inversely with the killing rate and correlates directly with the net rate of proliferation and exhaustion. This suggests that at a lower dose of CAR T-cells, individual T-cells kill more cancer cells but become more exhausted as compared to higher doses. Furthermore, the exhaustion rate was observed to increase significantly with tumor growth rate and was dependent on level of antigen expression. The CARRGO model highlights nonlinear dynamics involved in CAR T-cell therapy and provides novel insights into the kinetics of CAR T-cell killing. The model suggests that CAR T-cell treatment may be tailored to individual tumor characteristics including tumor growth rate and antigen level to maximize therapeutic benefit. Statement of SignificanceWe utilize a mathematical model to deconvolute the nonlinear contributions of CAR T-cell proliferation and exhaustion to predict therapeutic efficacy and dependence on CAR T-cell dose and target antigen levels.

immunology↗