Superior Expansion of γδ T-cell Subsets for Solid Tumor T-cell Therapy Using a Chemically Defined Non-animal Origin Cell Culture Medium

This poster discusses how our TheraPEAK® T-VIVO® Medium supports superior expansion of T cells through anti-CD3 and anti-CD28 co-stimulation as well as the robust expansion of γδ T cells.

Abstract

One limitation of current adoptive T-cell therapy is that engineered αβ T cells cannot sufficiently penetrate solid tumors to yield a significant clinical response. On the other hand, γδ T cells have extraordinary properties including the enhanced ability to infiltrate solid tumors and to directly recognize and kill transformed cells independently of HLA-antigen presentation. However, it remains a challenge to achieve sufficient expansion of γδ T cells to unleash their potential for clinical solid tumor applications. We previously reported the development of a fully chemically defined (CD) non-animal origin (NAO) serum-free culture medium, containing only recombinant proteins, which supports superior expansion of αβ T cells through anti-CD3 and anti-CD28 co-stimulation. Additionally, this culture medium supports more than 4,000-fold expansion of γδ T cells (including both Vδ1 and Vδ2 subsets) out of peripheral blood in two weeks using an ex vivo γδ T cell expansion process specifically tailored to exclude the expansion of contaminating αβ T cells. Compared to other approaches, this process only requires a low amount (100 IU/mL) recombinant human IL-2 and supports more consistent and scalable expan[1]sion of engineered T-cell subsets that target solid tumors in adoptive T-cell therapy