Homogeneously high expression of CD32b makes it a potential target for CAR-T therapy for chronic lymphocytic leukemia

CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cells have been used to treat patients with refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). However, approximately 50% of patients do not respond to this therapy. To improve the clinical outcome of these patients, it is necessary to develop strategies with other optimal targets to enable secondary or combinational CAR-T cell therapy. By screening a panel of surface antigens, we found that CD32b (FcγRIIb) was homogeneously expressed at high site density on tumor cells from CLL patients. We then developed a second-generation CAR construct targeting CD32b, and T cells transduced with the CD32 CAR efficiently eliminated the CD32b(+) Raji leukemic cell line in vitro and in a mouse xenograft model. Furthermore, CD32b CAR-T cells showed cytotoxicity against primary human CLL cells that were cultured in vitro or transplanted into immunodeficient mice. The efficacy of CD32b CAR T cells correlated with the CD32b density on CLL cells. CD32b is not significantly expressed by non-B hematopoietic cells. Our study thus identifies CD32b as a potential target of CAR-T cell therapy for CLL, although further modification of the CAR construct with a safety mechanism may be required to minimize off-target toxicity. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13045-021-01160-9.