Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Bhoj, Vijay G.
• Arhontoulis, Dimitrios
• Wertheim, Gerald
• Capobianchi, James
• Callahan, Colleen A.
• Ellebrecht, Christoph T.
• Obstfeld, Amrom E.
• Lacey, Simon F.
• Melenhorst, Jan J.
• Nazimuddin, Farzana
• Hwang, Wei-Ting
• Maude, Shannon L.
• Wasik, Mariusz A.
• Bagg, Adam
• Schuster, Stephen
• Feldman, Michael D.
• Porter, David L.
• Grupp, Stephen A.
• June, Carl H.
• Milone, Michael C.

Titel

Persistence of long-lived plasma cells and humoral immunity in individuals responding to CD19-directed CAR T-cell therapy

Ist Teil von

• Blood, 2016-07, Vol.128 (3), p.360-370

Ort / Verlag

United States: Elsevier Inc

Erscheinungsjahr

2016

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The mechanisms underlying the maintenance of long-lasting humoral immunity are not well understood. Studies in mice indicate that plasma cells (PCs) can survive up to a lifetime, even in the absence of regeneration by B cells, implying the presence of long-lived PCs as a mechanism for long-lasting immunity. Evidence from humans treated with anti-CD20, which depletes circulating B cells, also suggests B-cell–independent long-term survival of some PCs. On the other hand, antibody responses may be sustained solely by short-lived PCs with repopulation from clonally related memory B cells. To explore PC longevity and humoral immunity in humans, we investigated the fate of PCs and their antibodies in adult and pediatric patients who received chimeric antigen receptor–based adoptive T-cell immunotherapy targeting CD19 to treat B-cell lineage malignancies (CTL019). Treatment with CTL019 is frequently associated with B-cell aplasia that can persist for years. Serum antibody titers to vaccine-related antigens were measured, and quantitative assessment of B cells and PCs in blood and bone marrow was performed at various time points before and after CTL019 therapy. While total serum immunoglobulin concentrations decline following CTL019-induced B-cell aplasia, several vaccine/pathogen-specific serum immunoglobulin G and A (IgG and IgA) titers remain relatively stable for at least 6 and 12 months posttreatment, respectively. Analysis of bone marrow biopsies after CTL019 revealed 8 patients with persistence of antibody-secreting PCs at least 25 months post-CTL019 infusion despite absence of CD19+CD20+ B cells. These results provide strong evidence for the existence of memory B-cell–independent, long-lived PCs in humans that contribute to long-lasting humoral immunity. •CD19-targeted T-cell immunotherapy reveals that a population of PCs lacking CD19 expression survives long-term, independent of B cells.•Preexisting humoral immunity to vaccine-related antigens can persist in patients despite marked B-cell aplasia after CTL019 immunotherapy.