Journal: bioRxiv
Article Title: IL-9 as a naturally orthogonal cytokine with optimal JAK/STAT signaling for engineered T cell therapy
doi: 10.1101/2025.01.15.633105
Figure Lengend Snippet: (A) Schematic of the IL-9 receptor complex, highlighting the phosphotyrosine residue within the IL-9R intracellular domain (ICD) and three adjacent amino acids. A panel of ten single amino acid mutations were generated within the ICD at the proline or glutamine residues (created with Biorender.com ). (B) Heat map of MFI (log-scaled and row-scaled) at E max for phosphorylation of STAT1, STAT3, STAT4, and STAT5 for C57BL/6 T cells transduced with wildtype IL-9R or one of ten IL-9R mutants. Transduced pmel T cells (technical duplicates) were stimulated with IL-9 for 20 minutes. Data is representative of two independent experiments. (C) Dose-response curves of STAT1, STAT3, STAT4, and STAT5 phosphorylation among transduced IL-9R WT , IL-9R AQ , and IL-9R PR pmel T cells (YFP+) stimulated with recombinant IL-9 for 20 minutes. Error bars represent SEM of technical duplicates. Data is representative of three biological replicates. (D) Relative in vitro expansion of YFP + IL-9R WT , IL-9R AQ , IL-9R PR pmel T cells cultured with IL-9 on day 3 post-activation (10 nM; n=3 technical replicates/group). Data is representative of 3 biological replicates. (E) In vitro proliferation index of C57BL/6 T cells engineered with IL-9R WT , IL-9R AQ , and IL-9R PR over the course of nine days post-activation (transduced on day 1), as measured by dilution of CellTrace Violet dye (n=6 replicates/group). Cells were treated with either recombinant IL-2 or IL-9 (10 nM) on day 3 after T cell activation. Proliferation index was quantified using FlowJo software based on values of histogram peaks (see ). (F) Peripheral blood quantification of IL-9R WT , IL-9R AQ , or IL-9R PR transduced (Thy1.1 + YFP + ) pmel T cells in B16-F10 tumor-bearing mice (n=6-7 mice/group) on the indicated days after ACT. IL-9 treatment (5×10 4 IU i.p., every other day) was started with ACT and continued for 5 doses. Data is representative of at least three independent experiments. (G) Quantification of IL-9R WT , IL-9R AQ , or IL-9R PR transduced (YFP+) pmel T cells within the tumors (B16-F10) of mice (n=6-7 mice/group) seven days post adoptive cell transfer (ACT). Data is representative of two independent experiments. (H) B16-F10 tumor growth in mice treated with IL-9R WT (n=7 mice) or IL-9R PR (n=6 mice) pmel T cells. Data is representative of at least three independent experiments. (I) B16-F10 tumor growth in mice treated with IL-9R WT or IL-9R AQ pmel T cells (n=10 mice/group). IL-9 treatment as per (F). Data is representative of at least 4 independent experiments. For in vivo experiments, cytokines were tagged with mouse serum albumin (MSA) for half-life extension. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.005, ***P < 0.001, ****P < 0.0001 (two-way ANOVA for D-F; Welch’s t-test for G-I).
Article Snippet: Isolated pmel T cells were activated with 100 U ml -1 recombinant mouse IL-2 (rmIL-2) (Peprotech) and 1 µg ml -1 human gp100 peptide (Anaspec) the day before transduction.
Techniques: Residue, Generated, Transduction, Recombinant, In Vitro, Cell Culture, Activation Assay, Software, In Vivo