Enhanced Expression of Anti-CD19 Chimeric Antigen Receptor in piggyBac Transposon-Engineered T Cells

Adoptive T cell therapy using chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-modified T cells is a promising cancer immunotherapy. We previously developed a non-viral method of gene transfer into T cells using a piggyBac transposon system to improve the cost-effectiveness of CAR-T cell therapy. Here, we have further improved our technology by a novel culture strategy to increase the transfection efficiency and to reduce the time of T cell manufacturing. Using a CH2CH3-free CD19-specific CAR transposon vector and combining irradiated activated T cells (ATCs) as feeder cells and virus-specific T cell receptor (TCR) stimulation, we achieved 51.4% ± 14% CAR(+) T cells and 2.8-fold expansion after 14 culture days. Expanded CD19.CAR-T cells maintained a significant fraction of CD45RA(+)CCR7(+) T cells and demonstrated potent antitumor activity against CD19(+) leukemic cells both in vitro and in vivo. Therefore, piggyBac-based gene transfer may provide an alternative to viral gene transfer for CAR-T cell therapy.