Rapamycin Enhances CAR-T Control of HIV Replication and Reservoir Elimination in vivo.
Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cell therapy has emerged as a powerful immune therapy for various diseases. Our studies in humanized mice and non-human primates (NHPs) demonstrate that hematopoietic stem cell (HSCs) modified with anti-HIV CAR leads to lifelong engraftment and supply of functional anti-viral CAR-T cells, leading to significantly reduced viral rebound after ART withdrawal. However, T cell exhaustion, driven by chronic immune activation, remains a major challenge for the continuous efficacy of CAR-T therapy, necessitating additional measures to achieve functional cure. We recently showed that in vivo treatment with low dose rapamycin reduced chronic inflammation and improved anti-HIV T cell function in HIV-infected humanized mice. Here, we report that rapamycin significantly improved CAR-T cell function both in vitro and in vivo. In vitro treatment with rapamycin improved CAR-T cell mitochondria respiration and cytotoxicity. In vivo treatment with low-dose rapamycin in HIV-infected, CAR-HSC treated mice reduced chronic inflammation, prevented exhaustion of CAR-T cells and improved CAR-T control of viral replication compared to CAR-HSCs treatment alone. RNAseq analysis of sorted CAR-T cells from humanized mice showed that rapamycin significantly modified the CAR-T cell transcriptome, including the downregulation of multiple check point inhibitors and the upregulation of key genes related to cell survival. We also observed significantly delayed viral rebound after ART withdrawal and diminished HIV reservoir in mice that were treated with rapamycin and CAR-HSCs as compared to CAR-HSCs treatment alone. Taken together, our data indicate that HSCs-based anti-HIV CAR-T combined with rapamycin treatment is a promising approach for treating persistent inflammation and improving immune control of HIV replication.