IC2: Biopharmaceutical products derived from endocrine &immune sys 1 Flashcards
What are two types of immunotherapy
Activation type: augment and/or reestablish immune system’s ability to prevent, fight disease
suppression type: to reduce/suppress immune system
What are the 4 therapeutic strategies in immunotherapy
- Cytokines 2. Antibodies 3. T cells (TIL, TCR-T, CAR-T, immune checkpoint inhibition) 4. Cancer vaccines
Name the classes of cytokines (5) and their use
- interferons (IFN alpha, beta, gamma) –> produced by cells in response to viral infections, tumors and other biological tumors ; promote antiviral state in other neighbouring cells
- interleukins (IL2,11) –> produced by leukocytes mainly. Affect growth and differentiation of hemapoietic & immune cell. regulate hematopoiesis, immunity, inflammation
- Colony stimulating factors (CSF,EPO) –> stimulate cell division and differentiation of blood cells from bone marrow precursor
- chemokines –> stimulate leukocyte chemotaxis
- others eg TNF –> only present in small amounts under constitutive conditions. increased production by macrophage in response to inflam condition (cytokine storm). considered bad guy due to pro-inflam + pro-apoptosis action. aka adipokine produced by adipocytes , contribute to insulin resistance in type 2 DM
Are cytokines big or small proteins
small, usually <20 kDa
Describe the properties of cytokines (5)
- small proteins
- short half life
- are glycoproteins
- usually act at short range in an autocrine (i.e. on the cells that produce them) or paracrine (i.e. on cells nearby) manner 4. binds specifically to corresponding cytokine receptor
Describe the principles of TIL therapy
- Isolation of autologous tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes from patient’s excised tumor masses which consist of T and NK cells. IMPT: isolated T cells are polyclonal + diverse antigen specificity (due to gene arrangement @ Fab region)
- Isolated TILs are primed and expanded ex vivo by a rapid expansion process (REP) - TILs are exposed to a cocktail [high dose IL 2 + anti-CD3 antibody (To activate CD3 in TCR) + irridiated feeder cells (usually autologous PBMCs obtained from pt) ]
- Large quantities produced, TILs infused back into patients –> re-infiltrate tumor, recognise tumor antigens + attack cancer cells
How does the high dose IL2 + anti-CD3 antibody + irradiated feeder cells (PBMC) cocktail allow expansion of TILs in TIL therapy?
- IL2 -> IL2 is a cytokine produced by helper T cells (CD4+) which binds to IL2 receptors found on immature and mature T cells, causing T cell activation. Introducing a high dose of IL2 thus allows higher T cell activation
- Anti- CD3 antibody -> activates CD3 which is abundant on T cells surface
- Irradiated feeder cells -> produce lots of cytokines to allow T cell activation and expansion
What are the basic principles of TCR-T and CAR-T therapies
- T cells are isolated from patient’s peripheral blood (and expanded if quantities not high enough for genetic manipulation)
- They are genetically modified under in vitro lab conditions (require vector system) to develop tumor antigen specific T cells
- Genetically engineered T cells infused back to pt -> recognise tumor antigen and attack cancer cells
What are the advantages of TIL therapy
TIL therapy is generally safe among all ACT techniques
What are the limitations of TIL therapy
- excised tumor masses are devoid of or contain very low quantities of TILs.
- expanded naturally occurring tumor-specific T cells are heterogeneous = possessing varying antigen specificities. TIL reinfusion may not be lethal enough to attack and eradicate cancer cells.
- limited or none of the tumor antigen- specific T cells possess high affinity.
How is the Tcell genetically modified in TCR-T therapy?
- Genes encoding Valpha and Vbeta within the alpha and beta chains that make up (TCR) are tumor antigen-specific.
- These genes are cloned in retro-/lentiviral vectors, used to transduce Tcells from pt’s peripheral blood
- genetically modified T cells are less heterogeneous
Why is retro/lentiviral vectors used for TCR-T for genetic manipulation of T cells?
It has high transduction efficiency, ensures reinfused T cells possess high tumor antigen specificity
List the advantages of TCR-T therapy (2)
- Possess full TCR complex –> can recognize antigens expressed at both cell surface/tumor surface and within tumor cell/tumor mass –> can penetrate tumors –> effective against solid and hematological tumors.
- More effective than CAR-T as it uses full TCR complex for antigen recog and signal transduction (by CD3 proteins) : 1. can activate fully @ low target cell antigen densities 2. onset of signalling is slow but longer duration 3. execute extended killing
List the disadvantages of TCR-T therapy (2)
- Engineered TCR-T cells express particular tumor-specific TCR –> ONLY limited for use in pt subpopulation carrying MHC/HLA allele that is recog by TCR. (MHC is polygenic (made up of diff types of genes) and polymorphic (among genes, diff allele))
- Less safe than TIL due to
- On target OFF TUMOR toxicity: normal tissues may express same antigen (eg gp100 & MART-1 in both normal melanocytes and melanoma cells
- OFF TARGET toxicity: TCR-T cells not specific + cross react w/ other antigenic fragments
- CYTOKINE-release syndrome: infusion of TCR-T cells induce cytokine storm
Describe how CAR-T therapy works
- Construction of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR): genetic sequence encoding for specific antigen-binding sites within VH and VL in the Fab domain of an identified antibody is cloned into a retro/lentiviral vector
- T cells from pt peripheral blood are transduced by vectors carrying CAR gene
- Transduced T cells express CAR on surface: becomes CAR-T cells
- In vitro expansion of CAR-T cells
- Cells are infused into the patient to bind to antigens on cancer cells to kill them
What is the design of generations of CAR-T cells based on?
Structure of intracellular domain (which is different for every gen)
What is the same across all generations of CAR-T cells?
Extracellular domain: scFv @ Fab arm of Ig. responsible for antigen binding and recognition
What constitutes the 1st gen CAR-T cell design?
Intracellular domain: only 1 signalling domain (CD3ζ).
Signalling not strong enough to sustain CAR-T cell expansion and in vivo survival. Fail to hv potent antitumor activity clinically
What constitutes the 2nd gen CAR-T cell design?
Intracellular domain: 2 signalling domains (CD3ζ + additional co-stimulatory CD28 OR 4-1 BB domain) –> 2nd activation signal upon target antigen recognition.
Stronger signalling = lasting invitro proliferation + potent antitumor activity
What constitutes the 3rd gen CAR-T cell design?
Intracellular domain: 3 signalling domains (CD3ζ + additional co-stimulatory CD28 + 4-1 BB domain
Stronger activation signal upon target antigen recognition for lasting in vitro proliferation and potent antitumor activity
What constitutes the 4th gen CAR-T cell design?
Intracellular domain: 3 signalling domains (CD3ζ + additional co-stimulatory CD28 + 4-1 BB domain) AND transgene
Upon target antigen binding, trigger strong CAR signalling + activate transgene to express cytokines eg IL12 which exerts autocrine and/or paracrine effect on T cells @ target site –> activate more T cells to eliminate cancer cells
Antigen negative cancer cells can be eliminated by 4th gen CAR-T cells. T/F?
T. Addition of transgene allows the production of IL12 once activated. IL12 is not specifically target to cancer cells rather it just activates immune cells to participate in killing of cells`
What are the advantages of CAR-T cells (2)
- CAR-T cells recognize and bind to unprocessed tumor surface antigens without MHC processing. possess full TCR complex –> can recognize antigens without MHC proteins
- scFv domain only binds to cell surface antigen –>effective against hematological tumor like acute lymphoid leukemia. Not effective against solid tumors
Hematological tumor = tumor in blood
What are the disadvantages of CAR-T therapy (3)
1, scFv may guide CAR-T cells to an antigen-independent mech –>failed therapy
- less effective than TCR-T as CAR-T only activated when there is high expression of antigen on cancer cells (higher target cell surface antigen densities) + Only one subunit (scFv) binding to target cell surface antigen –> weaker CAR signaling and activation –> execute faster killing function but lack extended killing.
- AE
- on target OFF TUMOR toxicity [limited to B cell aplasia] –> due to CD19-specific CAR-T cells attacking and killing normal B cells also expressing CD19 like the malignant CD19+ B cells)
- OFF TARGET toxicity (not highly reported)
- Cytokine release syndrome (more than TCR-T)
Checkpoint proteins are expressed on T cell surface to trigger activation of T cell activity. T/F?
F. They trigger suppression of T cell activity
What is the native purpose of checkpoint proteins on T cells?
To counter OVERSTIMULATION of T cell activity + prevent autoimmune response
Two checkpoint proteins explored for therapeutics?
CD28 & PD-1`
They are expressed on the surface of activated T cells
What molecule does CTLA-4 compete with for binding on CD80/CD86 expressed on APC cell surface?
CD28
What happens when CD28 on activated T cells binds to CD80/CD86 on APC
Increase T cell activation –> activated T cells execute cell killing effect