Gene expression profiling of CAR-T cells pre-and post-adoptive transfer

Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CARs) are synthetic immune receptors introduced in cancer patients' autologous T Cells for cellular immunotherapy. The purpose of this study is to characterize the changes in gene expression induced by the presence of a CAR in human primary T cells (comparison A or B versus C); and the changes that take place for each group after transfer into a xenograft model of pancreatic cancer (comparison Post versus Pre). Primary human CD8 T cells were stimulated ex vivo and transduced to express either of 2 variants of an anti-PSCA CAR, or GFP as a control. Three independent cultures were maintained as biological replicates for each group. Two weeks later, they were injected into immunodeficient mice bearing HPAC-derived pancreatic tumors. Spleen-resident human CD8 T cells were isolated 30 days later, and the gene expression profiles of each group was analyzed using microarrays.