While cell-based immunotherapy, especially chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-expressing T cells, is becoming a paradigm-shifting therapeutic approach for cancer treatment, there is a lack of general methods to remotely and noninvasively regulate genetics in live mammalian cells and animals for cancer immunotherapy within confined local tissue space. To address this limitation, we have identified a mechanically sensitive Piezo1 ion channel (mechanosensor) that is activatable by ultrasound stimulation and integrated it with engineered genetic circuits (genetic transducer) in live HEK293T cells to convert the ultrasound-activated Piezo1 into transcriptional activities. We have further engineered the Jurkat T-cell line and primary T cells (peripheral blood mononuclear cells) to remotely sense the ultrasound wave and transduce it into transcriptional activation for the CAR expression to recognize and eradicate target tumor cells. This approach is modular and can be extended for remote-controlled activation of different cell types with high spatiotemporal precision for therapeutic applications.
T cells engineered to express chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) can recognize and engage with target cancer cells with redirected specificity for cancer immunotherapy. However, there is a lack of ideal CARs for solid tumor antigens, which may lead to severe adverse effects. Here, we developed a light-inducible nuclear translocation and dimerization (LINTAD) system for gene regulation to control CAR T activation. We first demonstrated light-controllable gene expression and functional modulation in human embryonic kidney 293T and Jurkat T cell lines. We then improved the LINTAD system to achieve optimal efficiency in primary human T cells. The results showed that pulsed light stimulations can activate LINTAD CAR T cells with strong cytotoxicity against target cancer cells, both in vitro and in vivo. Therefore, our LINTAD system can serve as an efficient tool to noninvasively control gene activation and activate inducible CAR T cells for precision cancer immunotherapy.
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