Histone marks identify novel transcription factors that parse CAR-T subset-of-origin, clinical potential and expansion

Chimeric antigen receptor-modified T cell (CAR-T) immunotherapy has revolutionised blood cancer treatment. Parsing the genetic underpinnings of T cell quality and CAR-T efficacy is challenging. Transcriptomics inform CAR-T state, but the nature of dynamic transcription during activation hinders identification of transiently or minimally expressed genes, such as transcription factors, and over-emphasises effector and metabolism genes. Here we explore whether analyses of transcriptionally repressive and permissive histone methylation marks describe CAR-T cell functional states and therapeutic potential beyond transcriptomic analyses. Histone mark analyses improve identification of differences between naïve, central memory, and effector memory CD8 + T cell subsets of human origin, and CAR-T derived from these subsets. We find important differences between CAR-T manufactured from central memory cells of healthy donors and of patients. By examining CAR-T products from a clinical trial in lymphoma (NCT01865617), we find a novel association between the activity of the transcription factor KLF7 with in vivo CAR-T accumulation in patients and demonstrate that over-expression of KLF7 increases in vitro CAR-T proliferation and IL-2 production. In conclusion, histone marks provide a rich dataset for identification of functionally relevant genes not apparent by transcriptomics. Transcriptomics is widely used to identify functional and developmental states of T cells and their genetically engineered therapeutic counterparts, such as CAR-T cells. Here authors show that by looking at epigenetic markers in human CD8 + T cells and CAR-T cells, properties and quality of these cells, which are not obvious from gene expression analysis, could be accurately described.