Gene expression in self-activating- and non-self-activationg CAR-T cells with CD28 or 4-1BB costimulatory domain.

We observed self-activation of SKM-CAR-T cells which target novel mesothelioma antigen. CAR-T with CD28 costimulatory domain showed signs of exhaustion while those with 4-1BB costimulatory domain did not. To elucidate molecules responsible for self-activation-induced exhaustion, we performed RNA-seq analysis of SKM-CAR-T cells with CD28 or 4-1BB and CD19-CAR-T cells with CD28 or 4-1BB. Comparative gene expression profiling analysis of RNA-seq data for SKM-28z CAR-T cells, SKM-28TM-BBz CAR-T cells and respective controls with CD19-CAR-T cells.