Open Access
ARTICLE
Pomalidomide improves the function of CD133- or HER2-specific CAR T cells
ZHIXIONG WANG1,2, NA RISU2, JIAYU FU2, HUI LIU3, GUOMIN ZHOU3, QIAN LIU3, YAN ZOU4, JIAXING TANG4, LONG LI4, XUEKAI ZHU4,*
1 Ma’anshan University, Ma’anshan, 243100, China
2 Division of Health Science, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan
3 School of Medical Instrument and Food Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200093, China
4 Shanghai Institute for Advanced Immunochemical Studies (SIAIS), ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, 201210, China
* Address correspondence to: Xuekai Zhu,
BIOCELL 2021, 45(1), 157-165. https://doi.org/10.32604/biocell.2021.010261
Received 21 February 2020; Accepted 30 July 2020; Issue published 26 January 2021
Abstract
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is mostly limited to hematological malignancies and has a poor
effect on solid tumors. CAR T cells as a kind of immune cell may be affected by some immunomodulatory drugs such as
pomalidomide, so the use of pomalidomide may improve the effect of CAR T cells on solid tumors. In this study, CD133-
or HER2-specific CAR T cells were chosen to investigate whether pomalidomide can regulate the function of CAR T cells
in vitro. We found that pomalidomide can significantly enhance the ability of CD133-CAR T cells and HER2-CAR T cells
to kill tumor cells and increase the cytokine secretion of CD133-CAR T cells and HER2-CAR T cells. Also, pomalidomide
was shown to induce down-regulation of protein levels of IL-2 transcriptional repressors Aiolos and Ikaros in CAR T cells.
This study suggests that the combination of pomalidomide and CAR T cells may be a new strategy for the treatment of
solid tumors.
Keywords
Cite This Article
WANG, Z., RISU, N., FU, J., LIU, H., ZHOU, G. et al. (2021). Pomalidomide improves the function of CD133- or HER2-specific CAR T cells.
BIOCELL, 45(1), 157–165.