Persistent STAT5 activation reprograms the epigenetic landscape in CD4+ T cells to drive polyfunctionality and antitumor immunity
- 1 October 2020
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science Immunology
- Vol. 5 (52)
- https://doi.org/10.1126/sciimmunol.aba5962
Abstract
The presence of polyfunctional CD4(+) T cells is often associated with favorable antitumor immunity. We report here that persistent activation of signal transducer and activator of transcription 5 (STAT5) in tumor-specific CD4(+) T cells drives the development of polyfunctional T cells. We showed that ectopic expression of a constitutively active form of murine STAT5A (CASTAT5) enabled tumor-specific CD4(+) T cells to undergo robust expansion, infiltrate tumors vigorously, and elicit antitumor CD8(+) T cell responses in a CD4(+) T cell adoptive transfer model system. Integrated epigenomic and transcriptomic analysis revealed that CASTAT5 induced genome-wide chromatin remodeling in CD4(+) T cells and established a distinct epigenetic and transcriptional landscape. Single-cell RNA sequencing analysis further identified a subset of CASTAT5-transduced CD4(+) T cells with a molecular signature indicative of progenitor polyfunctional T cells. The therapeutic significance of CASTAT5 came from our finding that adoptive transfer of T cells engineered to coexpress CD19-targeting chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) and CASTAT5 gave rise to polyfunctional CD4(+) CART cells in a mouse B cell lymphoma model. The optimal therapeutic outcome was obtained when both CD4(+) and CD8(+) CAR T cells were transduced with CASTAT5, indicating that CASTAT5 facilitates productive CD4(+) help to CD8(+) T cells. Furthermore, we provide evidence that CASTAT5 is functional in primary human CD4(+) T cells, underscoring its potential clinical relevance. Our results implicate STAT5 as a valid candidate for T cell engineering to generate polyfunctional, exhaustion-resistant, and tumor-tropic antitumor CD4(+) T cells to potentiate adoptive T cell therapy for cancer.Funding Information
- American Cancer Society (IRG14-193-01)
- NIH Office of the Director (1R01CA215523)
- NIH Office of the Director (1R03CA212829)
- NIH Office of the Director (1R01CA238514)
- National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (R37AI34495)
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