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Decade-long persistence of CD19 CAR T cells in B cell lymphomas

delete2026-08-10
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OA
AI
L
Luca Paruzzo
E
Emeline R. Chong
E
Elise A. Chong
Z
Zhixuan Zheng
P
Puneeth Guruprasad
D
Daniel J. Landsburg
S
Sunita D. Nasta
F
Federico Stella
R
Ranjani Ramasubramanian
A
Antonio Vitor Berganton De Souza
M
Mohannad H. Alkhatib
M
Matthew Ho
A
Antonio Imparato
G
Gregory M. Chen
D
Don L. Siegel
G
Gabriela Plesa
A
Anlan Dai
S
Shane Mackey
P
Priyamvada Das
P
Peter Michener
J
Julie K. Jadlowsky
F
Frederic D. Bushman
V
Vrutti Patel
A
Alberto Carturan
E
Ellen B. Napier
V
Vanessa E. Gonzalez
D
Danuta Jarocha
R
Rong Xu
B
Bruce L. Levine
P
Patrizia Porazzi
N
Noelle Frey
D
David L. Porter
J
Jakub Svoboda
J
Joseph A. Fraietta
C
Carl H. June
S
Stephen J. Schuster *
M
Marco Ruella *
DOI:10.1038/s41591-026-04578-1delete
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Abstract

Abstract

En 中文
Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy induces durable remissions in lymphoid malignancies, yet the extent and biology of long-term CAR T cell persistence in B cell lymphoma remain unclear. Here we report the persistence and characteristics of 4-1BB-costimulated anti-CD19 CAR T cells (CART19) up to 10 years after infusion in 38 patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Beyond year five, the CAR19 transgene was detectable in five of eight long-term responders (7.0–10.1 years), with three patients maintaining B cell aplasia, which is consistent with sustained functional activity. In one patient with a progression-free survival of 10.1 years, CART19 cells comprised 1.2% of circulating T cells 9.3 years after infusion. Long-term persisting CART19 cells exhibited a predominant double-negative (CD4−CD8−), effector-memory-like phenotype associated with increased aerobic metabolism and T cell activation programs. Longitudinal profiling revealed a progressive transition from CD8+ to double-negative CAR T cells over time. Persisting CART19 shared transcriptional features with long-term CAR T cells described in acute and chronic leukemias. T cell receptor sequencing demonstrated oligoclonal persistence at 9.3 years, with a dominant clone (70% of CART19 cells) already detectable at low frequency (<0.1%) at day 14. Lentiviral integration-site analysis identified a predominant integration within PACS1 without evidence of known drivers of CAR T cell expansion. These findings demonstrate that CART19 cells can persist for more than 10 years in lymphoma and identify phenotypic, transcriptional and clonal features associated with exceptionally long-term persistence. ClinicalTrials.gov registration: NCT02030834 Analysis of longitudinal blood samples shows that CD19 CAR T cells can be detected at least 10 years after treatment in patients with lymphoma, with deeper profiling from a single patient showing that these CAR T cells have a dominant double-negative activated effector-memory-like phenotype.

Journal

Nature Medicine cover
Nature Medicine
IF:
50
Papers:
1.4W
Citations:
13.4W

Organization

H
hospital of the university of pennsylvania
Scholars:
34
Papers: 18
Citations: 0
U
University of Pennsylvania
Scholars:
1.0W
Papers: 3.6K
Citations: 11.8W
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