First-in-class transactivator-free, doxycycline-inducible IL-18-engineered CAR-T cells for relapsed/refractory B-cell lymphomas Justicia Lirio, Pedro Tristán-Manzano, María Maldonado Pérez, Noelia Barbero-Jiménez, Carmen Cortijo Gutiérrez, Marina Pavlovic, Kristina Molina-Estévez, Francisco Javier Muñoz, Pilar Hinckley-Boned, Ana Rodriguez-Madoz, Juan R Prósper, Felipe Griñan-Lison, Carmen Navarro-Marchal, Saúl A Muñoz-Ballester, Julia Gonzalez-Sierra, Pedro A Herrera, Concha Marchal Corrales, Juan Antonio Martín, Francisco Although chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy has revolutionized type B cancer treatment, efficacy remains limited in various lymphomas and solid tumors. Reinforcing conventionalCAR- T cells to release cytokines can improve their efficacy but also increase safety concerns. Several strategies have been developed to regulate their secretion using minimal promoters that are controlled by chimeric proteins harboring transactivators. However, these chimeric proteins can disrupt the normal physiology of T cells. Here, we present the first transactivatorfree anti-CD19 CAR-T cells able to control IL-18 expression (iTRUCK19.18) under ultra-low doses of doxycycline and without altering cellularfitness. Interestingly, IL-18 secretion requires T cell activation in addition to doxycycline, allowing the external regulation of CAR-T cell potency. This effect was translated into an increased CAR-T cell antitumor activity against aggressive hematologic and solid tumor models. In a clinically relevant context, we generated patient-derived iTRUCK19.18 cells capable of eradicating primary B cells tumors in a doxycycline- dependent manner. Furthermore, IL-18-releasing CAR-T cells polarized pro-tumoral macrophages toward an antitumoral phenotype, suggesting potential for modulating the tumor microenvironment. In summary, we showed that our platform can generate exogenously controlled CAR-T cells with enhanced potency and in the absence of transactivators. 2025-01-15T12:15:49Z 2025-01-15T12:15:49Z 2024 journal article https://hdl.handle.net/10481/99255 doi.org/10.1016/j.omtn.2024.102308 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ open access Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License