A chemically inducible IL-2 receptor signaling complex allows for effective in vitro and in vivo selection of engineered CD4+T cells

Engineered T cells represent an emerging therapeutic modality. However, complex engineering strategies can present a chal-lenge for enriching and expanding therapeutic cells at clinical scale. In addition, lack of in vivo cytokine support can lead to poor engraftment of transferred T cells, including regulatory T cells (Treg). Here, we establish a cell-intrinsic selection system that leverages the dependency of primary T cells on IL-2 signaling. FRB-IL2RB and FKBP-IL2RG fusion proteins were identified permitting selective expansion of primary CD4+ T cells in rapamycin supplemented medium. This chemically inducible signaling complex (CISC) was subsequently incorpo-rated into HDR donor templates designed to drive expression of the Treg master regulator FOXP3. Following editing of CD4+ T cells, CISC+ engineered Treg (CISC EngTreg) were selectively expanded using rapamycin and maintained Treg ac-tivity. Following transfer into immunodeficient mice treated with rapamycin, CISC EngTreg exhibited sustained engraft-ment in the absence of IL-2. Furthermore, in vivo CISC engage-ment increased the therapeutic activity of CISC EngTreg. Finally, an editing strategy targeting the TRAC locus permitted generation and selective enrichment of CISC+ functional CD19-CAR-T cells. Together, CISC provides a robust platform to achieve both in vitro enrichment and in vivo engraftment and activation, features likely beneficial across multiple gene-edited T cell applications.

Automated summary

This study establishes a cell-intrinsic selection system that selectively expands primary CD4+ T cells and maintains the activity of engineered Treg cells without IL-2 signaling. This system can also be applied to selective enrichment and activation of CAR-T cells.