Omidubicel is an ex vivo expanded hematopoietic progenitor cell and nonexpanded myeloid and lymphoid cell product derived from a single umbilical cord blood unit. We report results of a phase 3 trial ...to evaluate the efficacy of omidubicel compared with standard umbilical cord blood transplantation (UCBT). Between January 2017 and January 2020, 125 patients age 13 to 65 years with hematologic malignancies were randomly assigned to omidubicel vs standard UCBT. Patients received myeloablative conditioning and prophylaxis with a calcineurin inhibitor and mycophenolate mofetil for graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). The primary end point was time to neutrophil engraftment. The treatment arms were well balanced and racially diverse. Median time to neutrophil engraftment was 12 days (95% confidence interval CI, 10-14 days) for the omidubicel arm and 22 days (95% CI, 19-25 days) for the control arm (P < .001). The cumulative incidence of neutrophil engraftment was 96% for patients receiving omidubicel and 89% for patients receiving control transplants. The omidubicel arm had faster platelet recovery (55% vs 35% recovery by 42 days; P = .028), had a lower incidence of first grade 2 to 3 bacterial or invasive fungal infection (37% vs 57%; P = .027), and spent more time out of hospital during the first 100 days after transplant (median, 61 vs 48 days; P = .005) than controls. Differences in GVHD and survival between the 2 arms were not statistically significant. Transplantation with omidubicel results in faster hematopoietic recovery and reduces early transplant-related complications compared with standard UCBT. The results suggest that omidubicel may be considered as a new standard of care for adult patients eligible for UCBT. The trial was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as #NCT02730299.
•Transplantation with omidubicel provides faster neutrophil and platelet recovery compared with a standard umbilical cord blood graft.•Transplantation with omidubicel results in fewer early bacterial and viral infections and less time in hospital.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Delayed hematopoietic recovery is a major drawback of umbilical cord blood (UCB) transplantation. Transplantation of ex vivo-expanded UCB shortens time to hematopoietic recovery, but long-term, ...robust engraftment by the expanded unit has yet to be demonstrated. We tested the hypothesis that a UCB-derived cell product consisting of stem cells expanded for 21 days in the presence of nicotinamide and a noncultured T cell fraction (NiCord) can accelerate hematopoietic recovery and provide long-term engraftment.
In a phase I trial, 11 adults with hematologic malignancies received myeloablative bone marrow conditioning followed by transplantation with NiCord and a second unmanipulated UCB unit. Safety, hematopoietic recovery, and donor engraftment were assessed and compared with historical controls.
No adverse events were attributable to the infusion of NiCord. Complete or partial neutrophil and T cell engraftment derived from NiCord was observed in 8 patients, and NiCord engraftment remained stable in all patients, with a median follow-up of 21 months. Two patients achieved long-term engraftment with the unmanipulated unit. Patients transplanted with NiCord achieved earlier median neutrophil recovery (13 vs. 25 days, P < 0.001) compared with that seen in historical controls. The 1-year overall and progression-free survival rates were 82% and 73%, respectively.
UCB-derived hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells expanded in the presence of nicotinamide and transplanted with a T cell-containing fraction contain both short-term and long-term repopulating cells. The results justify further study of NiCord transplantation as a single UCB graft. If long-term safety is confirmed, NiCord has the potential to broaden accessibility and reduce the toxicity of UCB transplantation.
Clinicaltrials.gov NCT01221857.
Gamida Cell Ltd.
Strategies that increase homing to the bone marrow and engraftment efficacy of ex vivo expended CD34+ cells are expected to enhance their clinical utility. Here we report that nicotinamide (NAM), a ...form of vitamin B-3, delayed differentiation and increased engraftment efficacy of cord blood–derived human CD34+ cells cultured with cytokines. In the presence of NAM, the fraction of CD34+ CD38− cells increased and the fraction of differentiated cells (CD14+ , CD11b+ , and CD11c+ ) decreased. CD34+ cells cultured with NAM displayed increased migration toward stromal cell derived factor–1 and homed to the bone marrow with higher efficacy, thus contributing to their increased engraftment efficacy, which was maintained in competitive transplants with noncultured competitor cells. NAM is a known potent inhibitor of several classes of ribosylase enzymes that require NAD for their activity, as well as sirtuin (SIRT1), class III NAD+ -dependent-histone-deacetylase. We demonstrated that EX-527, a specific inhibitor of SIRT1 catalytic activity, inhibited differentiation of CD34+ cells similar to NAM, while specific inhibitors of NAD-ribosylase enzymes did not inhibit differentiation, suggesting that the NAM effect is SIRT1-specific. Our findings suggest a critical function of SIRT1 in the regulation of hematopoietic stem cell activity and imply the clinical utility of NAM for ex vivo expansion of functional CD34+ cells.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Historical efforts at expansion of umbilical cord blood (UCB) derived CD34+ hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) ex vivo with cytokines yielded large numbers of progenitors for transplantation but ...impaired their long-term engraftment ability. We used nicotinamide (NAM), an allosteric inhibitor of NAD-enzymes, to create omidubicel, an investigational cell therapy designed to improve the expansion of CD34+ HSCs for bone marrow transplant. A Phase 1/2 clinical study of omidubicel in patients with high-risk hematologic malignancies showed rapid neutrophil engraftment and a more favorable immune reconstitution profile in patients compared to historical controls.1 We hypothesized that NAM treatment maintains the stemness and engraftment potential of omidubicel, which is associated with clinical benefit.2
We performed transcriptome, transcription factor (TF), and pathway analysis by next generation sequencing (NGS) to discern the mechanism of action of NAM and to elucidate the pathways leading to the preservation of engraftment after ex vivo expansion of omidubicel compared to CD34+ cells grown in the absence of NAM. Transcriptome analysis revealed that treatment of CD34+ cells with cytokines alone (stem cell factor SCF, thrombopoietin TPO, IL-6, and FLT3 ligand) led to an increase in pathways responsible for cell proliferation and differentiation, apoptotic stress, and production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), all of which were attenuated by NAM.
TF enrichment analysis of NAM-upregulated genes and downregulated genes demonstrated that NAM modulated several TFs critically involved in pathways of HSC cell self-renewal, differentiation, apoptosis and migration. Specifically, NF-kB, C-Jun, LXR/RXR and PPARα/RXRα, and AMPK-mTor signaling were all reduced in NAM-treated CD34+ cells compared to controls. Reduced expression of key genes involved in the production of ROS and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) including NADPH-oxidase-related genes (CYBB, NCF2 and NCF4) and iNOS, suggested that NAM-expanded CD34+ cells were less exposed to oxygen and nitrogen free radical stress than controls. NAM also downregulated the expression of several matrix metalloproteinases (MMP) genes including MMP7, MMP9, MMP12 and MMP19. NAM-induced downregulation of MMPs may explain the increase in engraftment in patients receiving omidubicel.
Pathway analysis of differentially expressed (DE) genes was conducted using ingenuity (IPA) software. IPA analysis of DE genes showed significant downregulation of growth factor activating pathways including SCF, TPO, FLT, and GM-CSF and Endothelin-1 and P2Y Purigenic Receptor, which was confirmed by a reduction in cell cycling rates of labeled cells. IPA analysis also pointed to genes in 3 key cellular pathways that were downregulated by NAM: stress induction of apoptosis, production of ROS and RNS, and production of MMPs.
NAM treatment also uniquely upregulated genes linked to cellular metabolism including the Sirtuin family genes, TCA cycle genes, and HIF1a. Interestingly, NAM upregulated genes responsible for telomerase expression further validating our hypothesis that NAM preserves cell stemness.
In summary, NGS transcriptome analysis revealed that ex vivo expansion of UCB derived CD34+ cells in the presence of NAM attenuated TFs responsible for proliferation and differentiation of stem cells. In addition, NAM treatment downregulated genes regulating the production ROS, RNS, and MMPs and upregulated genes controlling metabolism and senescence, thus allowing for the expansion of CD34+ cells with preserved function and long-term engraftment ability. Our gene expression data leads to a better understanding of the mechanisms by which NAM modulates CD34+ cells in omidubicel to preserve their function. These data provide further scientific rationale for the favorable clinical engraftment and patient outcomes observed in the Phase 1/2 clinical study of omidubicel.1 An international, randomized, multi-center Phase 3 study of omidubicel in patients with high-risk hematologic malignancies is underway.2
1Horwitz M.E., et. al., J Clin Oncol. 2019 Feb 10;37(5):367-374.
2 ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT02730299.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Adoptive transfer of cytolitic Natural Killer (NK) cells is a promising immunotherapeutic modality for hematologic and other malignancies. However, limited NK cell in vivo persistence and ...proliferation have been challenging clinical success of this therapeutic modality. Here we present a reliable, scalable and GMP-compliant culture method for the expansion of highly functional donor NK cells for clinical use.
Nicotinamide (NAM), a form of vitamin B-3, serves as a precursor of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) and is a potent inhibitor of enzymes that require NAD including ADP ribosyltransferases and cyclic ADP ribose/NADase. As such, NAM is implicated in the regulation of cell adhesion, polarity, migration, proliferation, and differentiation.
We have previously reported that NAM augments tumor cytotoxicity and cytokine (TNFα and IFN-γ) secretion of NK cells expanded in feeder-free culture conditions stimulated with IL-2 or IL-15. Immunophenotype studies demonstrated NK cells expanded with NAM underwent typical changes observed with cytokine only-induced NK cell activation with no significant differences in the expression of activating and inhibitory receptors. CD200R and PD-1 receptors were expressed at low levels in resting NK cells, but their expression was up-regulated following activation in typical cytokine expansion cultures. Interestingly, the increase in CD200R and PD-1 was reduced by NAM, suggesting these NK cells to be less susceptible to cancer immunoevasion mechanisms (Fig 1).
In vivo retention and proliferation is a pre-requisite for the success of NK therapy. We have reported that NK expanded with NAM displayed substantially better retention in the bone marrow, spleen and peripheral blood of irradiated NSG mice. Using a carboxyfluorescein succinimidyl ester (CFSE) dilution assay, we demonstrated increased in vivo proliferation of NAM-cultured NK cells compared with cells cultured without NAM. These results were recently confirmed using a BrdU incorporation assay in irradiated NSG mice (Fig.2). These findings were mechanistically supported by a substantial increase in CD62L (L-selectin) expression in cultures treated with NAM. CD62L is pivotal for NK cell trafficking and homeostatic proliferation and its expression is down regulated in IL-2 or IL-15 stimulated cultures (Fig. 3).
These data provided the foundation for the development of a feeder cell-free scalable culture method for clinical therapy using apheresis units obtained from healthy volunteers. CD3+ cells were depleted using a CliniMACS T cell depletion set. Following depletion, the CD3- fraction was analyzed for phenotypic markers and cultured in closed-system flasks (G-Rex100 MCS, Wilson Wolf) supplemented with 20ng/ml IL-15 or 50ng/ml IL-2 GMP, 10% human serum, minimum essential medium-α and NAM USP for two weeks. While at seeding, NK cells comprised 5-20% of total culture seeded cells, at harvest, NK cells comprised more than 97% of the culture. Although overall contamination of the NK cultures was low with either IL-15 or IL-2, a lower fraction of CD3+ and CD19+ cells was observed with IL-15 vs IL-2 (0.2±0.1% vs. 0.4±0.2% and 1.3±0.4% vs. 2.4±0.6%, respectively). Consequently, we decided to use IL-15 for clinical manufacturing. Optimization of NAM concentration studies showed similar expansion with 2.5 and 5 mM and a decrease in expansion with 7.5 mM NAM. Since NAM at 5 mM had a stronger impact on CD62L expression and on the release of IFNγ and TNFα than NAM at 2.5 mM, we selected 5mM NAM for clinical manufacturing.
Overall median NK expansion after two weeks in closed G-Rex flasks supplemented with IL-15 and 5mM NAM was 50-fold (range 37-87). An additional and significant increase in expansion was obtained after doubling the culture medium one week post seeding. While there was a marked advantage for single culture feeding, more feedings had less impact on NK expansion and had a negative effect on the in vivo retention potential. Our optimized expansion protocol therefore involved one feeding during the two weeks expansion duration resulting in 162±30.7-fold expansion of NK cells relative to their input number in culture.
Based on these data, we have initiated a clinical trial at University of Minnesota, to test the safety and efficacy of escalating doses (2 x 107/kg - 2 x 108/kg) of our novel NAM NK cell product in patients with refractory non-Hodgkins lymphoma and multiple myeloma (NCT03019666).
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
We have previously found that the synthetic polyamine tetraethylenepentamine (TEPA) significantly delayed differentiation and prolonged expansion of cord-blood derived HPC in cytokine-supplemented ...cultures. Most HPC have the CD34+CD38+ phenotype, but the minority CD34+38- cells are primitive subset of HPC that have the potential for long-term repopulation in vivo. We investigated the effect of TEPA on the CD34/CD38 surface antigen expression of human myeloid leukemia cell lines as well as normal cord blood derived hematopoietic cells. Confirming previous results, our data showed that both the leukemic and normal cells increased their CD38 expression when grown in serum-containing medium or when treated with retinoic acid. In the present study, we found that TEPA inhibited CD38 under these conditions in both normal and leukemic cells. As for CD34, TEPA increased the proportion of CD34 cells in short- and long-term normal cultures but not in the leukemic cell lines. These results suggest that ex vivo expansion of HPC depends on the presence of CD34+CD38- cells and that TEPA prolongs HPC expansion by inhibiting the CD38- to CD38+ transition.
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DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Background: NK cells have the capacity to kill tumor targets, representing a novel immunotherapeutic approach to cancer. We have shown promising clinical activity in AML with a previous NK cell ...preparation. Limitations of NK therapies have included specificity, persistence after infusion, and potential for maximal activity of NK cells in vivo. GDA-201 is a cellular product composed of natural killer (NK) cells from healthy donors expanded ex vivo with nicotinamide (NAM) and IL-15; this is a unique ex vivo activation strategy to induce persistence of potent anti-tumor activity. Prior in vitro studies and pre-clinical models demonstrated that NAM-exposed NK cells exhibited augmented resistance against exhaustion and improved killing function, proliferation, and organ retention. We now report safety and efficacy from a phase 1 clinical trial of GDA-201 in patients (pts) with relapsed or refractory (R/R) NHL or MM.
Methods: Following donor apheresis, CD3-depleted mononuclear cells were cultured for 14-16 days with NAM (5mM) and IL-15 (20ng/ml), resulting in a 40-fold increase in NK cells and increased expression of CD62L from 2.9% to 21%. GDA-201 contained ~98% NK cells, and CD3 content was maintained at <0.5% (<5x105/kg/dose). Pts with R/R CD 20-positive NHL or refractory MM received cyclophosphamide (400mg/m2 IV x 3d) and fludarabine (30 mg/m2 /d IV x 3d), followed by two doses of GDA-201 (Days 0 and 2) and low-dose IL-2 (6 million units sc). Pts with NHL or MM received rituximab (375 mg/m2 x 4 weekly or elotuzumab (10 mg/kg x 3 weekly), respectively, to enhance NK cell targeting through antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC).
Results: 20 pts were enrolled: 7 with NHL (4 follicular, 2 transformed, 1 diffuse large cell lymphoma) and 13 with MM, in 3 cohorts of escalating GDA-201 dose; 11 pts received the maximum target dose (median 1.7 x 108 cells/kg, range 1.6-2.0 x 108 cells/kg). There were no dose limiting toxicities. The most common grade 3/4 adverse events were neutropenia and thrombocytopenia, febrile neutropenia (n=2), increased creatinine, hyponatremia, pulmonary edema; all events were transient. One pt had grade 2 cytokine release syndrome at day 18, presenting with fever, hypoxemia and hypotension, responding to tocilizumab; pt later died of E Coli sepsis. There were no neurotoxic events, GVHD or marrow aplasia.
Among 7 NHL pts, there were 3 CR and 2 PR with overall response rate of 71%. Median duration of response was 12 months (CR patients) and 5 months (PR patients). Figure 1A illustrates a 57-year-old man with history of CLL and Richter's transformation (large cell lymphoma), pre- GDA-201 and 6 months post therapy; the pt had continued response with 80% tumor shrinkage at 6 months. In MM patients, 1 patient with extramedullary disease had CR and 4 had SD with median duration 2.5 months. In our previous study using overnight-activated NK cells, persistence 7 days after adoptive transfer was limited. Using GDA-201, flow cytometry confirmed persistence of donor NAM-NK in peripheral blood up to day 7-10 (day 7 range 2-55% donor NK cells; Figure 1B), as well as enhanced in vivo proliferation (median Ki67 99%).
Conclusions: Cellular therapy using GDA-201 with monoclonal antibodies was safe, and demonstrated early evidence of clinical activity in heavily pre-treated pts with advanced NHL and MM. The recommended dose of GDA-201 for phase 2 is 2.0 x 108 cells/kg. The clinical responses showed that NK cell targeting through ADCC can be efficacious and increase response. Laboratory studies showed that GDA-201 had better persistence than observed in our previous studies using overnight activated cytokine alone stimulated NK cells. This study demonstrated that GDA-201 has an efficacy signal, and larger phase II studies are warranted.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Omidubicel (nicotinamide-expanded cord blood) is a potential alternative source for allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) when an HLA-identical donor is lacking. A phase I/II trial with ...standalone omidubicel HCT showed rapid and robust neutrophil and platelet engraftment. In this study, we evaluated the immune reconstitution (IR) of patients receiving omidubicel grafts during the first 6 months post-transplant, as IR is critical for favorable outcomes of the procedure. Data was collected from the omidubicel phase I-II international, multicenter trial. The primary endpoint was the probability of achieving adequate CD4+ T-cell IR (CD4IR: > 50 × 10
/L within 100 days). Secondary endpoints were the recovery of T-cells, natural killer (NK)-cells, B-cells, dendritic cells (DC), and monocytes as determined with multicolor flow cytometry. LOESS-regression curves and cumulative incidence plots were used for data description. Thirty-six omidubicel recipients (median 44; 13-63 years) were included, and IR data was available from 28 recipients. Of these patients, 90% achieved adequate CD4IR. Overall, IR was complete and consisted of T-cell, monocyte, DC, and notably fast NK- and B-cell reconstitution, compared to conventional grafts. Our data show that transplantation of adolescent and adult patients with omidubicel results in full and broad IR, which is comparable with IR after HCT with conventional graft sources.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Background: Patients with severe sickle cell disease (SCD) experience organ damage, poor quality of life, and are at high risk of premature mortality. To date, allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell ...transplant remains the only available curative therapy for SCD. However, patients with SCD have difficulties finding matched related or unrelated donors for transplantation. UCB could be an alternative graft option for most of the SCD patients but, to date, results with unrelated UCB have not been satisfactory for these hard to engraft patients. NiCord is an ex vivo expanded product manufactured from an entire UCB unit which has been shown to produce rapid and sustained engraftment in combination with a second unmanipulated CB unit or as a standalone graft in adult patients with high-risk hematologic malignancies. We hypothesized that the combination of NiCord with an unmanipulated UCB unit might overcome the engraftment barriers which have limited the success of UCBT in patients with SCD. This strategy is currently evaluated for safety and efficacy in a phase I/II multi-center study in pediatric patients with SCD undergoing myeloablative conditioning therapy. Here we report the results of the first 8 patients in the study.
Methods: Patients with SCD and high risk features were eligible if they were between 2 and 45 years of age and if they had adequate performance status and organ function, 2 suitable unrelated UCB units that minimally matched the patient at 4/6 HLA alleles, and if they did not have a fully HLA matched related or unrelated adult donor. The NiCord graft, manufactured by the study sponsor, consisted of a CD133+ expanded cell fraction and an uncultured CD133- T-cell containing fraction. All patients received hydroxyurea beginning on day -35. Patients were subsequently prepared for transplantation with myeloablative chemotherapy: Busulfan/Cyclophosphamide and Anti Thymocyte Globulin (ATG). After the first 3 patients an adverse effect of ATG on the expanded graft was suspected and ATG was replaced by Fludarabine for the subsequent 5 patients. On day 0, the unmanipulated CB unit and NiCord graft were infused. Engraftment, GVHD incidence, treatment related mortality and survival were assessed by conventional parameters.
Results: Eight patients, at a median age of 12 years (range 3-16 years) and a median weight of 41 kg (range 17-67 kg) were transplanted. HLA matching between patients and NiCord units was 4/6 (n=7) and 5/6 (n=1); and that between patients and unmanipulated units was 4/6 (n=5) and 5/6 (n=3). Median CD34+ cell dose infused in the NiCord graft was 107 x 105/kg. All 8 transplanted patients initially engrafted neutrophils at a median of 7 days (range 6-20 days) with the NiCord graft. One patient experienced secondary graft failure and died after a second transplant. Ultimately, long term engraftment was derived from NiCord in 2 patients, from the unmanipulated unit in 4 patients and mixed donor chimerism is still sustained in one patient. Patients were hospitalized for initial transplant for a median of 55 days (range 43-100 days). The 7 patients with sustained full donor cell engraftment are currently alive at a median follow-up of 33 months (range 3-45 months), transfusion free and without sickle cell related symptoms. Engraftment and clinical outcomes of the 8 patients are shown in Table 1.
Conclusions: NiCord appears to overcome the engraftment barriers of UCB in patients with SCD. Remarkably, sustained donor cell engraftment was obtained in 7/8 patients, despite 4/6 matched UCB units and 5 patients without ATG. NiCord has the potential to increase access to transplantation for patients with SCD by enabling the successful use of unrelated UCB donors. Further optimization of this approach with strategies to further decrease GVHD is warranted.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Clinical results with NK cells in investigational tumor immunotherapy protocols have at best resulted in partial responses only. The inability of ex vivo expanded NK cells to proliferate in vivo, as ...well as to home to and be retained in the tumor micro-environment, likely plays a role in their limited efficacy to date.
Clinical grade NK cells expanded using EBV-LCL feeder cells (FC) have recently been evaluated in the clinic (NHLBI) for hematological malignancies and metastatic cancers with only minor responses being observed to date. We observed that CD62L expression was down-regulated on EBV-LCL NK cells compared to fresh NK cells, potentially limiting their clinical activity. Since NAM up-regulates CD62L on NK cells cultured in feeder-free (FF) conditions, we compared the ability of FF NK cells with EBV-LCL NK cells to home and persist in vivo following adoptive transfer into NSG mice.
FF NK cultures were initiated with CD3 depleted PB TNC while EBV-LCL NK cell cultures were initiated by co-culturing 100 cGy-irradiated SMI-EBV-LCL FC with CD3 depleted, CD56 enriched cells. NSG mice received 200 cGy of TBI followed 24 hours later by 10 million IV NK cells. Three cohorts were studied: a) NK cells expanded using EBV-LCL FC; b) FF expanded NK cells without NAM and c) FF expanded NK cells with NAM (5mM). All NK cell cohorts were expanded from the same human donor. Cells were harvested from the blood, lungs, spleen, and BM of mice 4 days after infusion (n=5). NK cells expanded with NAM in FF conditions were detectable in all mouse organs including the PB at significantly higher levels than NK cells expanded in FF conditions without NAM or using EBV-LCL FC (Fig.1a). Subsequent experiments transferring CFSE-labeled NK cells expanded with NAM into irradiated NSG mice showed a marked reduction in CFSE intensity and the presence of multiple peaks after 4 days, indicative of in vivo proliferation. We next evaluated the impact of daily exogenous IL-2 or IL-15 administration on the homing potential of expanded NK cells 4 days post-infusion into irradiated NSG mice (n=5). We observed that both IL-2 and IL-15 enhanced homing of NK cells expanded with NAM in FF conditions, but failed to enhance the homing of NK cells expanded with EBV-LCL FC (Fig. 1b). With the exception of CD62L, no consistent differences in the phenotype of NK cells between the various expansion methods were observed. NK cells expanded in all groups maintained similar levels of cytotoxicity against multiple different targets including K562 cells, myeloma and renal cell carcinoma tumor cell lines. The number of NK cells expanded using FF conditions was lower than NK cells expanded with EBV-LCL. Nevertheless, NK cells cultured in NAM without feeder cells still expanded a median 50 (37-87) fold, yielding a total of 140x108 NK cells (purity >98%) from a single aphaeresis collection. Further, cytokine levels measured from the supernatants of NK cells cultured with tumor targets showed significantly higher levels of IFNγ, TNFα and FAS-L secretion from FF NK cells expanded with NAM in comparison to the other two groups (Fig1c).
These data show human NK cells expanded ex vivo in NAM utilizing FF conditions substantially up-regulate CD62L, have enhanced inflammatory cytokine secretion against tumors, and have improved in vivo proliferation and homing to multiple organs including the bone marrow compared to EBV-LCL expanded NK cells. These differences suggest NAM expanded NK cells could have superior clinical efficacy compared to EBV-LCL expanded NK cells following adoptive transfer into patients with hematological malignancies and metastatic cancers.
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Nicotinamide (NAM) is a small molecule form of Vitamin B3 and a potent inhibitor of enzymes that use NAD for their activity and thus is involved in the control of redox-sensitive enzymes, mitochondrial functions, cell metabolism and production of energy and cell motility. NAM, when used as an epigenetic modulator has been shown to increase the homing and engraftment efficacy to the BM of ex vivo expanded CD34+ cells.
Recently, we found (Gamida-Cell) that NAM also enhances the in-vivo homing and retention of peripheral blood (PB) derived NK cells expanded over two weeks in feeder-free culture conditions stimulated with IL-2 or IL-15. Immunophenotype studies demonstrated NAM-treated cultures had a substantial increase in CD62L (L-selectin), pivotal for NK cell trafficking and homeostatic proliferation.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
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