Department of Dermatology, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Cabaletta Bio, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Nat Biotechnol. 2023 Sep;41(9):1229-1238. doi: 10.1038/s41587-022-01637-z. Epub 2023 Jan 19.
Muscle-specific tyrosine kinase myasthenia gravis (MuSK MG) is an autoimmune disease that causes life-threatening muscle weakness due to anti-MuSK autoantibodies that disrupt neuromuscular junction signaling. To avoid chronic immunosuppression from current therapies, we engineered T cells to express a MuSK chimeric autoantibody receptor with CD137-CD3ζ signaling domains (MuSK-CAART) for precision targeting of B cells expressing anti-MuSK autoantibodies. MuSK-CAART demonstrated similar efficacy as anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor T cells for depletion of anti-MuSK B cells and retained cytolytic activity in the presence of soluble anti-MuSK antibodies. In an experimental autoimmune MG mouse model, MuSK-CAART reduced anti-MuSK IgG without decreasing B cells or total IgG levels, reflecting MuSK-specific B cell depletion. Specific off-target interactions of MuSK-CAART were not identified in vivo, in primary human cell screens or by high-throughput human membrane proteome array. These data contributed to an investigational new drug application and phase 1 clinical study design for MuSK-CAART for the treatment of MuSK autoantibody-positive MG.
肌肉特异性酪氨酸激酶重症肌无力(MuSK MG)是一种自身免疫性疾病,由于抗 MuSK 自身抗体破坏神经肌肉接头信号,导致危及生命的肌肉无力。为了避免当前治疗方法的慢性免疫抑制,我们设计了表达 MuSK 嵌合自身抗体受体与 CD137-CD3ζ 信号域(MuSK-CAART)的 T 细胞,用于精确靶向表达抗 MuSK 自身抗体的 B 细胞。MuSK-CAART 显示出与抗 CD19 嵌合抗原受体 T 细胞相似的功效,可耗尽抗 MuSK B 细胞,并在存在可溶性抗 MuSK 抗体的情况下保持细胞溶解活性。在实验性自身免疫性重症肌无力小鼠模型中,MuSK-CAART 减少了抗 MuSK IgG,而不减少 B 细胞或总 IgG 水平,反映了 MuSK 特异性 B 细胞耗竭。在体内、原代人细胞筛选或高通量人膜蛋白质组阵列中,均未发现 MuSK-CAART 的特定脱靶相互作用。这些数据为 MuSK-CAART 治疗 MuSK 自身抗体阳性 MG 的研究性新药申请和 1 期临床研究设计提供了依据。