Multimodal Single-Cell Transcriptomic and Proteomic Correlatives of Patients Outcomes Following Anti-BCMA Cellular Therapy with Ciltacabtagene Autoleucel (Cilta-cel) in Relapsed Multiple Myeloma

Introduction Multimodal single cell technologies allow us to dissect the mechanisms of therapeutic resistance by integrating transcriptomics and proteomics through the combination of antibody labeling and next-generation sequencing. Using CITE-seq, mass cytometry (CyTOF) and quantitative multiplexed proteomics (Olink), we sought to understand the determinants of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell response and the overall survival of patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM) receiving ciltacabtagene autoleucel (Cilta-Cel) cellular therapy. Methods Twenty five patients received Cilta-Cel and had bone marrow (BM) and peripheral blood (PB) samples collected at baseline and after CAR T infusion. We isolated 262,520 BM cells and 241,657 PB cells, which were later sequenced using CITE-seq. Additionally, we submitted PB samples for CyTOF analysis and acquired 10,162,426 cells used for downstream analysis. We analyzed 92 cytokines using Olink immuno-oncology panel in PB samples. Downstream analysis was performed using the R packages Seurat, CATALYST, FlowSOM and Olink Analyze. Results Our cohort had a median progression-free survival (PFS) of 732 days. To focus our correlative analyses on patients experiencing early relapse, the initial cohort was divided into 2 groups: PFS 18 months (n = 15). CAR-T cell expansion was observed in week 2 post-infusion and continued up to week 4. The percentage of CD4 and CD8 CAR-T cells significantly increased between weeks 1-3 and weeks 4-6 weeks (p