De novo-designed receptor transmembrane domains (TMDs) present opportunities for precise control of cellular receptor functions. We developed a de novo design strategy for generating programmed membrane proteins (proMPs): single-pass α-helical TMDs that self-assemble through computationally defined and crystallographically validated interfaces. We used these proMPs to program specific oligomeric interactions into a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) that we expressed in mouse primary T cells and found that both in vitro CAR T cell cytokine release and in vivo antitumor activity scaled linearly with the oligomeric state encoded by the receptor TMD, from monomers up to tetramers. All programmed CARs stimulated substantially lower T cell cytokine release relative to the commonly used CD28 TMD, which we show elevated cytokine release through lateral recruitment of the endogenous T cell costimulatory receptor CD28. Precise design using orthogonal and modular TMDs thus provides a new way to program receptor structure and predictably tune activity for basic or applied synthetic biology.
The impressive success of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapies in treating advanced B-cell malignancies has spurred a frenzy of activity aimed at developing CAR-T therapies for other cancers, particularly solid tumors, and optimizing engineered T cells for maximum clinical benefit in many different disease contexts. A rapidly growing body of design work is examining every modular component of traditional single-chain CARs as well as expanding out into many new and innovative engineered immunoreceptor designs that depart from this template. New approaches to immune cell and receptor engineering are being reported with rapidly increasing frequency, and many recent high-quality reviews (including one in this special issue) provide comprehensive coverage of the history and current state of the art in CAR-T and related cellular immunotherapies. In this review, we step back to examine our current understanding of the structure-function relationships in natural and engineered lymphocyte-activating receptors, with an eye towards evaluating how well the current-generation CAR designs recapitulate the most desirable features of their natural counterparts. We identify key areas that we believe are under-studied and therefore represent opportunities to further improve our grasp of form and function in natural and engineered receptors and to rationally design better therapeutics.
De novo designed receptor transmembrane domains (TMDs) present opportunities for precise control of cellular functions. We develop a strategy for generating programmed membrane proteins (proMPs): single-pass α-helical TMDs that form oligomeric complexes through computationally defined and crystallographically validated interfaces. To demonstrate their usefulness, we program specific oligomeric interactions into a chimeric antigen receptor (to generate proCARs) and analyze the cytotoxic potency and cytokine release profiles of proCAR-T cells. We show that dimeric and trimeric proCAR-expressing T cells have significantly enhanced antitumor cytotoxicity compared to a monomeric proCAR and a reference CAR similar to those currently used in the clinic. Independently of oligomeric state, all proCAR-T cells exhibited strongly attenuated inflammatory cytokine release. These results have important implications for both safety and efficacy of cellular immunotherapies and highlight the advantages of programming precise structural features in engineered receptors through de novo protein design. The proMPs provide an exceptionally modular route to tuning receptor function and can be easily incorporated into existing CAR designs.
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