Larcombe-Young, D. | Search bioRxiv

bioRxiv2025

GLUT5 armouring enhances adoptive T cell therapy anti-tumour activity under glucose-limiting conditions

Cancer immunotherapy with engineered T cells has become a standard treatment for certain hematologic cancers. However, clinical trial outcomes for solid tumours are significantly lagging. A primary challenge in solid tumours is the lack of essential metabolites in the tumour microenvironment, such as glucose, due to poor vascularization and competition with tumour cells. To address this, we modified T cells to use fructose as an alternative energy source by introducing ectopic GLUT5 expression. We show that "GLUT5-armored" T cells, engineered with either chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) or an ectopic T cell receptor (TCR), achieve enhanced anti-tumour activity in low-glucose environments in both in vitro and in vivo models. This straightforward modification is compatible with current clinical approaches and may improve the efficacy of T cell therapies for solid tumours. Graphical Abstract O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=117 SRC="FIGDIR/small/633365v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (62K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@15e10e0org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@a5f029org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@3a32daorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@e09ff9_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG

cancer biology↗

bioRxiv2020

Hypoxia-Sensing CAR T-Cells Provide Safety and Efficacy in Treating Solid Tumors

There has been significant interest in the prospects of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy in the treatment of solid malignancies, and multiple clinical trials are in progress 1. However, the scope of these trials has been restricted by the lack of availability of tumor-specific targets to direct CAR binding. Tumor specificity is crucial as on-target off-tumor activation of CAR T-cells in healthy tissues can result in potentially lethal toxicities due to uncontrolled cytokine release syndrome 2. Here we engineer a stringent hypoxia-sensing CAR T-cell system which achieves selective expression of a pan-ErbB-targeted CAR within a solid tumor, a microenvironment characterized by an inadequate oxygen supply. Using murine xenograft models, we demonstrate that despite widespread expression of ErbB receptors in healthy organs, the approach provides anti-tumor efficacy without off-tumor toxicity. This dynamic on/off oxygen-sensing safety switch has the potential to facilitate the unlimited expansion of the CAR T-cell target repertoire for treating solid malignancies.Competing Interest StatementYes there is potential Competing Interest. J.M. is co-founder and chief scientific officer, T.M. is an employee, and D.M.D., D.L.Y. are consultants to Leucid Bio, which is a spinout company focused on development of cellular therapeutic agents. J.N.A., J.M. and P.K. are named inventors on a patent submitted in relation to this work. All other authors have declared that there are no competing financial interests or conflicts of interest in relation to this study.View Full Text

synthetic biology↗