| HRA002989
(Open Access)
|
Chimeric antigen receptor modified T (CAR-T) cell therapy has limited efficacy against solid tumor, one major challenge is T cell exhaustion. To address this challenge, we performed a candidate gene screen using a hypofunction CAR-T cell model, and found that knocking out BATF improved the performance of CAR-T cells. In different types of CAR-T cells and mouse OT-1 cells, knocking out BATF endows T cells with improved resistance to exhaustion and better tumor eradication efficacy. We find that BATF binds to and up-regulates a subset of exhaustion genes in human CAR-T cells. Furthermore, BATF regulates the expression of genes involved in the development of effector and memory cells, and knocking out BATF shifts the population towards more central memory subset. Therefore, we conclude that BATF is a key factor limiting CAR-T cell function, and its depletion improves CAR-T cells efficacy against solid tumor. |
