doi:10.1186/s13045-023-01467-9...
BioMed Central
Medicine & Public Health
2023
26-07-2023
Background The receptor tyrosine kinases TAM family (TYRO3, AXL, and MERTK) are highly expressed in multiple forms of cancer cells and tumor-associated macrophages and promote the development of cancers including pancreatic tumor.
Targeting TAM receptors could be a promising therapeutic option.
Methods We designed a novel CAR based on the extracellular domain of growth arrest-specific protein 6 (GAS6), a natural ligand for all TAM members.
The ability of CAR-T to kill pancreatic cancer cells is tested in vitro and in vivo, and the safety is evaluated in mice and nonhuman primate.
Results GAS6-CAR-T cells efficiently kill TAM-positive pancreatic cancer cell lines, gemcitabine-resistant cancer cells, and cancer stem-like cells in vitro.
GAS6-CAR-T cells also significantly suppressed the growth of PANC1 xenografts and patient-derived xenografts in mice.
Furthermore, these CAR-T cells did not induce obvious side effects in nonhuman primate or mice although the CAR was demonstrated to recognize mouse TAM.
Conclusions Our findings indicate that GAS6-CAR-T-cell therapy may be effective for pancreatic cancers with low toxicity.
Fan, Jiawei,Yu, Ye,Yan, Lanzhen,Yuan, Yuncang,Sun, Bin,Yang, Dong,Liu, Nan,Guo, Jing,Zhang, Jie,Zhao, Xudong, 2023, GAS6-based CAR-T cells exhibit potent antitumor activity against pancreatic cancer, BioMed Central