Biology subjects

Eyquem, J.

Publications and source records attributed to Eyquem, J..

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Deep Learning-based Modeling Enhances Efficacy of Natural Ligand CAR Binders Targeting CD70

CD70 is well-recognized as a promising "pan-cancer: chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell target. Prior work has shown that a "natural ligand" (NL)-based CAR targeting CD70, employing its physiological interaction partner CD27, may have therapeutic advantages over antibody-based CARs. Yet while antibody-based CARs are routinely optimized by affinity maturation of their scFv, whether the binding sequence of an NL CAR can be engineered to improve its function remains unexplored. Here, we combined deep learning with physics-based modeling to redesign residues at the CD27:CD70 interface, identifying a CD27 variant, "N88A", which enhances the efficacy of CD70-targeting CAR T-cells across models of acute myeloid leukemia, multiple myeloma, and renal cell carcinoma. Biophysical approaches, including molecular dynamics simulations, support a mechanism of increased binder conformational freedom underlying potency enhancement. Our work presents CD27N88A CAR T-cells as a promising new therapeutic option and proposes that computational modeling could be applied to enhance efficacy of other NL-based immunotherapies.

cancer biology↗

bioRxiv2026

Development of a Fully Non-Viral 1XX-enhanced BCMA CAR-T Cell Therapy for Multiple Myeloma

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a clonal plasma cell malignancy characterized by bone marrow infiltration, monoclonal immunoglobulin production, and microenvironmental dysregulation that leads to systemic organ damage. The advent of B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA)-directed chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy has induced unprecedented responses and durability for patients with relapsed/refractory MM. These outcomes are rarely observed with prior salvage strategies, although relapse remains the predominant long-term challenge for most patients. The two currently approved BCMA CAR-T cell products use viral vectors to semi-randomly insert the CAR gene, which results in heterogeneous genomic composition and variability in efficacy, safety, and product consistency. To address these challenges, we integrated targeted CRISPR genome engineering with precise CAR transgene insertion at the T-cell receptor alpha constant (TRAC) locus, 1XX CAR signaling architecture to enhance potency and durability, and non-viral manufacturing with a single-stranded DNA repair template to improve efficiency and yield. This approach confers physiological CAR expression, reduces insertional mutagenesis, and improves persistence by mitigating tonic signaling and exhaustion. Our GMP manufacturing process consistently achieved high CAR integration (37.7-72.7%) and yields across all full-scale runs and met predefined release criteria for identity, purity, safety, and quality. In NSG mouse models of MM, the UCCT-BCMA-1 product exhibited exceptionally potent tumor control, CAR-T cell expansion 100-1000-fold greater than that of lentiviral constructs, and durable clearance of myeloma cells after multiple rechallenges. These findings establish a CRISPR-edited, fully non-viral manufacturing platform for next-generation 1XX-BCMA CAR-T therapies with enhanced persistence, safety, and efficacy. One Sentence SummaryCRISPR-engineered, TRAC-targeted 1XX-BCMA CAR-T therapy with improved safety, potency, and persistence in relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma.

cancer biology↗

bioRxiv2025

Virus-like particles enable targeted gene engineering and pooled CRISPR screening in primary human myeloid cells

Primary human myeloid cells are promising candidates for immunotherapy, yet efficient and scalable technologies for genetic engineering and screening in these cells are limited. Here we present a virus-like particle (VLP)-based toolkit that delivers diverse CRISPR genome editing modalities to human monocytes, macrophages, and dendritic cells with high efficiency while preserving viability and innate immune responsiveness. VLP-mediated delivery of ribonucleoprotein payloads supports gene knockout, base editing and epigenetic silencing, and enables site-specific integration of large DNA sequences when combined with AAV donors for homology-directed repair. Leveraging sgRNA delivery via VPX-lentivirus combined with Cas9 protein delivery via engineered virus-like particle (eVLP) treatment ("SLICeVLP"), we performed the first pooled loss-of-function screens in human macrophages. We uncovered regulators of TNF production and CD80 expression in human macrophages, converging on TNFAIP3 as a central regulator of inflammatory polarization. TNFAIP3 ablation promoted a pro-inflammatory cell state that is resistant to suppressive polarization, and augmented cytotoxicity of engineered HER2 CAR-macrophages. Taken together, this technology platform enables unbiased discovery and characterization of functional gene targets in primary human myeloid cells.

immunology↗

bioRxiv2025

Bispecific T cell engagers control solid tumors through clonal replacement and IL2-driven effector differentiation of CD8 T-cells

Bispecific T cell engagers (TCEs) often exhibit limited efficacy in solid tumors, in part due to immunosuppressive cues in the tumor microenvironment and low expression of targetable tumor antigens. Therapeutic strategies to improve TCE target sensitivity and enhance T cell effector functions therefore have significant translational potential. Here, we engineered TCEs that induce T cell activation in vitro against the low-abundance target antigens, TRP2/Kb and DLL3. Despite in vitro activity in these models, TCE monotherapy showed limited control of tumor growth in immunocompetent mice. Leveraging this in vivo model of TCE treatment failure, we discovered that co-treatment with TCE and a CD25-biased Interleukin-2 (IL2) rescues anti-tumor activity. Further, multimodal single-cell transcriptomic and immune repertoire analyses revealed that TCE-IL2 combination therapy controlled tumors by recruiting and activating new CD8+ T cells into the tumor microenvironment. These findings demonstrate that TCE-mediated anti-tumor responses function through a CD8+ T cell clonal replacement mechanism that can be augmented by cytokine therapy. One Sentence SummaryCombining TCE therapy with IL-2 enhances TCE efficacy in aggressive small-cell lung cancer and melanoma models with low target antigen density through T cell clonal replacement and CD8+ effector T cell differentiation.

cancer biology↗

bioRxiv2025

Decoding Peripheral Tolerance: TCR Rules for pTreg differentiation in the Gut

Peripheral differentiation of regulatory T cells (pTregs) promoted by foreign antigens encountered in barrier tissues is considered a unique contributor to immunological tolerance to obligate non-self, like food or symbiotic microbes. The relative importance of adaptive recognition via the T cell receptor (TCR) vs environmental small-molecule or neuroimmune cues, is poorly understood. We leverage CRISPR-based TCR editing to perform in primary T cells in vivo, with a large panel of TCRs, a screen to assess pTreg differentiation induced by self, microbial, or dietary antigens. All antigen classes drive pTreg differentiation, which varies with the origin of the TCR: TCRs derived from Tregs enable pTreg differentiation much more effectively than those from Tconv. TCRs recognizing self, microbial, or dietary antigens elicit distinct pTreg phenotypes, Helios, ROR{gamma}, or both. Mechanistically, these trace to different types of antigen-presenting-cell involved. That Treg-derived TCRs preferentially drive tolerogenic fate speaks to preferential drivers of tolerogenic therapy.

immunology↗

bioRxiv2025

Site-specific genome engineering of primary human natural killer cells for programmable anti-tumor function

Natural killer (NK) cells are emerging as a promising platform for engineered adoptive cell therapies. However, gene editing in NK cells remains challenging, and more effective strategies are needed. Here, we established a robust, feeder-free, and modular workflow for genome engineering in primary human NK cells, combining CRISPR/Cas9 with AAV6-mediated transgene delivery. Efficient site-specific transgene integration was achieved at various loci and can be coupled with concurrent disruption of the target locus in a single editing step. Furthermore, transgene expression was tunable according to the integration site and promoter. We applied this strategy to target a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) transgene to a panel of inhibitory NK receptor loci, establishing a synergistic approach to enhance anti-tumor activity and facilitate the reliable comparison of CAR variants without expression bias. We identified TIGIT as an ideal locus that supports strong CAR expression and anti-tumor function. This genome engineering framework, which leverages multiple, complementary and precisely controlled genetic edits, can support the rational design of future NK-cell therapies tailored to overcome cell-intrinsic limitations and tumor-specific barriers.

immunology↗

bioRxiv2025

Base-editing a single missense mutation in A20 enhances CAR-T cell efficacy

T cell exhaustion limits the efficacy of cancer immunotherapies. Here, we performed genome-wide loss-of-function screening in repetitively stimulated human T cells and identified the mulitfunctional ubiquitin-modifying protein A20/TNFAIP3 as a major negative regulator of exhausted T cell persistence. Protein large language modeling, deep base-editing mutagenesis, and studies in immunocompetent mice with domain-specific inactivating mutations revealed A20s non-enzymatic M1 ubiquitin-binding zinc finger 7 (A20ZF7) motif as critical to suppression of anti-tumor immunity. A20ZF7-deficient CD8+ tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) resisted terminal exhaustion and circumvented an unappreciated mechanism restraining perforin degranulation in terminally exhausted cells. Human chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells engineered via base-editing to inactivate A20ZF7 via a single missense mutation also resisted exhaustion, secreted more perforin and robustly suppressed cancer in vivo. These studies pinpoint A20ZF7 as a novel T cell checkpoint and reveal precision base-editing of missense mutations as an effective approach to enhance CAR-T cell therapy.

immunology↗

bioRxiv2025

Bicistronic CAR T-cells Against CD70 & Active Integrin β2 Overcome Antigen Heterogeneity and Preserve Safety in Acute Myeloid Leukemia

The surface antigen landscape of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) displays significant heterogeneity and overlap with healthy hematopoietic cells. This imparts a substantial hurdle to the development of AML-targeting chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cells that can avoid on- target, off-tumor toxicity. Here, we develop a dual-antigen targeting CAR-T against CD70 and the active conformation of integrin {beta}2 (aITGB2), each previously reported as promising AML targets due to minimal off-tumor expression. We show an OR-gated approach for these antigens significantly increases the proportion of AML blasts that can be targeted, in part using a novel ex vivo co-culture method to restore surface protein homeostasis following a freeze-thaw cycle. We test dual-targeting CAR-T constructs with different combinations of costimulatory domains, identifying constructs with superior anti-tumor cytotoxicity in vitro against AML cell line and patient-derived xenograft models. We further show significantly improved in vivo tumor clearance and survival for a dual-targeting CAR in murine models of AML tumor heterogeneity. Finally, we show that this dual-targeting CAR does not increase off-tumor toxicity, especially against hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells. Together, these findings demonstrate a promising clinically-translatable approach for the treatment of AML without the notable toxicity liabilities associated with other leading CAR-T targets for this disease.

immunology↗

bioRxiv2025

Programmable microparticles rewire CAR signaling to enable super-physiological expansion of human T cells in vitro

T cell proliferative capacity and persistence critically determine the therapeutic success of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells. However, it remains unknown if and how human CAR-T cells can be externally programmed to reach maximal proliferative capacity. Here, we use programmable PLGA microparticles functionalized with CAR-antigens and CD28-costimulatory antibodies (CAREp) to repeatedly stimulate human CD8+ CAR-T cells in vitro. CAREp-stimulated CAR-T cells expanded continuously for over 100 days--versus [~]30 days with tumor cell stimulation--and achieved up to 1018-fold cumulative expansion, greatly surpassing CD3/28-Dynabeads. Early-phase transcriptomic responses-- upregulation of DNA repair, cell cycle, telomere maintenance, and mitochondrial pathways--aligned with long-term outcomes: massive proliferation, telomere stability, robust respiration, and preserved progenitor phenotype by single-cell sequencing. Differentiation and exhaustion signals were broadly suppressed. Transient telomerase activity further supported physiologic expansion. These findings demonstrate that nanoscale-controlled extracellular cues can rewire intracellular signaling to drive durable, super-physiological expansion of functional CAR-T cells.

immunology↗

bioRxiv2024

Dendritic cells accelerate CAR T cells in irradiated tumors through chimeric synapses

The persistence of adoptively transferred T cells is vital for anti-tumor efficacy. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells can persist indefinitely when delivered to patients with B cell cancers and can confer long-term remission. For patients with solid tumors, however, sustaining CAR T cell activity remains a major challenge. This has been attributed in part to the immune microenvironment within solid tumors, though the contribution of specific immune subsets to resistance to CAR T cells is not clear. Here we resolve how the immunology of irradiated tumors dramatically enhances persistence and efficacy of CAR T cells targeted to advanced lung metastases in a syngeneic mouse model. Remarkably, CAR T cell persistence depended critically on dendritic cells (DC) that underwent trogocytic "antigen-dressing" of tumor target antigens and stimulated CAR T cells through the chimeric receptor. Furthermore, tumor irradiation increased antigen-dressing onto DCs. In the absence of functional DCs, CAR T cell activity in irradiated tumor was short-lived and tumors relapsed. These findings establish a critical mechanism through which DCs maintain the CAR T cell pool in irradiated tumors, thus supporting translation of this approach to advance CAR T cell therapy for solid tumors.

immunology↗

bioRxiv2024

Evolutionarily guided transcription factor design programs novel T cell states

Protein-coding genes in the human genome evolved via modular rearrangement of domains from ancestral genes1. Here, we develop a scalable, evolutionarily guided method to assemble novel protein-coding genes from constituent domains within a protein family, termed DESynR (Domain Engineered via Synthesis and Recombination) genes. Using primary human chimeric antigen receptor T cells as a model system, we find that the expression of DESynR Activator Protein-1 (AP-1) transcription factors (TFs) significantly outperforms the overexpression of natural AP-1 TFs in multiple functional assays in vitro and in vivo. Top DESynR AP-1 TFs exhibit non-intuitive architectures of constituent domains, including from TFs that are not canonically expressed in T cells. DESynR AP-1 TFs induce broad transcriptional and epigenetic reprogramming of T cells and, in some cases, lead to the development of non-natural T cell states, engaging gene expression modules from disparate human cell types. Taken together, we demonstrate that novel configurations of existing protein domains may uncover non-evolved genes that program cell states with therapeutically relevant functions.

genetics↗

bioRxiv2024

Localized in vivo gene editing of murine cancer-associated fibroblasts

Fibroblasts play critical roles in regulating cellular relationships during tissue homeostasis, immunity, and tumor biology at multiple sites. However, tools to perturb fibroblasts at just one site in vivo are limited, restricting our understanding of how these cellular relationships develop on a local level. We optimized local gene editing of fibroblasts in multiple mouse tumor models to investigate how locally restricted fibroblast perturbations affect the cellular tumor microenvironment (TME). By knocking out surface receptors Osmr, Tgfbr2, or Il1r1 on cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), we uncover that TGFBR2 signaling loss uniquely induces the emergence of a Col18a1hi CAF cell state that is distinct from previously described fibroblast states and is associated with worse survival in human PDAC patients. Further application of a local as well as combinatorial gene knockout technology in CAFs reveals a circuit in which these Col18a1hi CAFs reshape the TME by recruiting Siglec-Fhi neutrophils via Cxcl5 expression; and that the Col18a1hi CAF cell state is further dependent on TNFR1 and canonical Wnt signaling. Together, a fast, affordable, and modular engineering method is demonstrated, allowing discovery of a modified fibroblast identify, as well as the network details of a local inter-cellular circuitry in a tumor. Graphical Abstract O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=138 SRC="FIGDIR/small/603114v2_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (48K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@f375c5org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1b8fad9org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@15cfd0aorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1e8dacc_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2024

Peptide-enabled ribonucleoprotein delivery for CRISPR engineering (PERC) in primary human immune cells and hematopoietic stem cells

Peptide-enabled ribonucleoprotein delivery for CRISPR engineering (PERC) is a new approach for ex vivo genome editing of primary human cells. PERC uses a single amphiphilic peptide reagent to mediate intracellular delivery of the same pre-formed CRISPR ribonucleoprotein enzymes that are broadly used in research and therapeutics, resulting in high-efficiency editing of stimulated immune cells and cultured hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs). PERC facilitates nuclease-mediated gene knockout, precise transgene knock-in, and base editing. PERC involves mixing the CRISPR ribonucleoprotein enzyme with peptide and then incubating the formulation with cultured cells. For efficient transgene knock-in, adeno-associated virus (AAV) bearing homology-directed repair template DNA may be included. In contrast to electroporation, PERC is appealing as it requires no dedicated hardware and has less impact on cell phenotype and viability. Due to the gentle nature of PERC, delivery can be performed multiple times without substantial impact to cell health or phenotype. Here we report methods for improved PERC-mediated editing of T cells as well as novel methods for PERC-mediated editing of HSPCs, including knockout and precise knock-in. Editing efficiencies can surpass 90% using either Cas9 or Cas12a in primary T cells or HSPCs. Because PERC calls for only three readily available reagents - protein, RNA, and peptide - and does not require dedicated hardware for any step, PERC demands no special expertise and is exceptionally straightforward to adopt. The inherent compatibility of PERC with established cell engineering pipelines makes this approach appealing for rapid deployment in research and clinical settings.

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2024

Spleen Tyrosine Kinase (SYK) negatively regulates ITAM-mediated human NK cell signaling and CD19-CAR NK cell efficacy

NK cells express activating receptors that signal through ITAM-bearing adapter proteins. The phosphorylation of each ITAM creates binding sites for SYK and ZAP70 protein tyrosine kinases to propagate downstream signaling including the induction of Ca2+ influx. While all immature and mature human NK cells co-express SYK and ZAP70, clonally driven memory or adaptive NK cells can methylate SYK genes and signaling is mediated exclusively using ZAP70. Here, we examined the role of SYK and ZAP70 in a clonal human NK cell line KHYG1 by CRISPR-based deletion using a combination of experiments and mechanistic computational modeling. Elimination of SYK resulted in more robust Ca++ influx after cross-linking of the CD16 and NKp30 receptors and enhanced phosphorylation of downstream proteins, whereas ZAP70 deletion diminished these responses. By contrast, ZAP70 depletion increased proliferation of the NK cells. As immature T cells express both SYK and ZAP70 but mature T cells often express only ZAP70, we transduced the human Jurkat cell line with SYK and found that expression of SYK increased proliferation but diminished TCR-induced Ca2+ flux and activation. We performed transcriptional analysis of the matched sets of variant Jurkat and KHYG1 cells and observed profound alterations caused by SYK expression. As depletion of SYK in NK cells increased their activation, primary human NK cells were transduced with a CD19-targeting CAR and were CRISPR edited to ablate SYK or ZAP70. Deletion of SYK resulted in more robust cytotoxic activity and cytokine production, providing a new therapeutic strategy of NK cell engineering for cancer immunotherapy.

immunology↗

bioRxiv2024

Scalable intracellular delivery via microfluidic vortex shedding enhances the function of chimeric antigen receptor T-cells

Adoptive chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy is transformative and approved for hematologic malignancies. It is also being developed for the treatment of solid tumors, autoimmune disorders, heart disease, and aging. Despite unprecedented clinical outcomes, CAR-T and other engineered cell therapies face a variety of manufacturing and safety challenges. Traditional methods, such as lentivirus transduction and electroporation, result in random integration or cause significant cellular damage, which can limit the safety and efficacy of engineered cell therapies. We present hydroporation as a gentle and effective alternative for intracellular delivery. Hydroporation resulted in 1.7- to 2-fold higher CAR-T yields compared to electroporation with superior cell viability and recovery. Hydroporated cells exhibited rapid proliferation, robust target cell lysis, and increased pro-inflammatory and regulatory cytokine secretion in addition to improved CAR-T yield by day 5 post-transfection. We demonstrate that scaled-up hydroporation can process 5 x 108 cells in less than 10 s, showcasing the platform as a viable solution for high-yield CAR-T manufacturing with the potential for improved therapeutic outcomes.

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2024

Ultra-high efficiency T cell reprogramming at multiple loci with SEED-Selection

Multiplexed reprogramming of T cell specificity and function can generate powerful next-generation cellular therapies. However, current manufacturing methods produce heterogenous mixtures of partially engineered cells. Here, we develop a one-step process to enrich for unlabeled cells with knock-ins at multiple target loci using a family of repair templates named Synthetic Exon/Expression Disruptors (SEEDs). SEED engineering associates transgene integration with the disruption of a paired endogenous surface protein, allowing non-modified and partially edited cells to be immunomagnetically depleted (SEED-Selection). We design SEEDs to fully reprogram three critical loci encoding T cell specificity, co-receptor expression, and MHC expression, with up to 98% purity after selection for individual modifications and up to 90% purity for six simultaneous edits (three knock-ins and three knockouts). These methods are simple, compatible with existing clinical manufacturing workflows, and can be readily adapted to other loci to facilitate production of complex gene-edited cell therapies.

synthetic biology↗

bioRxiv2023

Spatiotemporal Control of Genomics and Epigenomics by Ultrasound

CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) is a revolutionary technology for genome editing. Its derived technologies such as CRISPR activation (CRISPRa) and CRISPR interference (CRISPRi) further allow transcriptional and epigenetic modulations. Focused ultrasound (FUS) can penetrate deep in biological tissues and induce mild hyperthermia in a confined region to activate heat-sensitive genes. Here we engineer a set of CRISPR(a/i) tools containing heat-sensitive genetic modules controllable by FUS for the regulation of genome and epigenome in live cells and animals. We demonstrated the capabilities of FUS-inducible CRISPRa, CRISPRi, and CRISPR (FUS-CRISPR(a/i)) to upregulate, repress, and knockout exogenous and/or endogenous genes, respectively, in different cell types. We further targeted FUS-CRISPR to telomeres in tumor cells to induce telomere disruption, inhibiting tumor growth and enhancing tumor susceptibility to killing by chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells. FUS-CRISPR-mediated telomere disruption for tumor priming combined with CAR-T therapy demonstrated synergistic therapeutic effects in xenograft mouse models. The FUS-CRISPR(a/i) toolbox allows the remote, noninvasive, and spatiotemporal control of genomic and epigenomic reprogramming in vivo, with extended applications in cancer treatment.

bioengineering↗

bioRxiv2023

Mitigation of chromosome loss in clinical CRISPR-Cas9-engineered T cells

CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing has enabled advanced T cell therapies, but occasional loss of the targeted chromosome remains a safety concern. To investigate whether Cas9-induced chromosome loss is a universal phenomenon and evaluate its clinical significance, we conducted a systematic analysis in primary human T cells. Arrayed and pooled CRISPR screens revealed that chromosome loss was generalizable across the genome and resulted in partial and entire loss of the chromosome, including in pre-clinical chimeric antigen receptor T cells. T cells with chromosome loss persisted for weeks in culture, implying the potential to interfere with clinical use. A modified cell manufacturing process, employed in our first-in-human clinical trial of Cas9-engineered T cells,1 dramatically reduced chromosome loss while largely preserving genome editing efficacy. Expression of p53 correlated with protection from chromosome loss observed in this protocol, suggesting both a mechanism and strategy for T cell engineering that mitigates this genotoxicity in the clinic.

cell biology↗