First-in-human use of recombinant IL-7 to potentiate antigen-specific T cell therapy: a single patient case study

Clinical trials of adoptive cellular therapy demonstrate that a key characteristic associated with durable responses is in vivo expansion and persistence of transferred T cells. Strategies to develop a less differentiated, stem/memory population in the infusion product and peri-infusional regimens to promote the maintenance of desired T cell states following adoptive transfer would be desirable. Endogenous T cell therapy studies have routinely achieved memory T cells enriched for expression of interleukin (IL)-7 receptor; to eliminate the conventional requirement for immunosuppressive lymphodepletion and its attendant life-threatening toxicities, we performed the first-in-human use of IL-7 in combination with adoptively transferred antigen-specific memory CD8 T cells in a patient with refractory metastatic uveal melanoma. Single-cell immune repertoire profiling of serial peripheral blood sampling revealed substantial in vivo proliferation and expansion of a stem cell memory population in the endogenous T cell therapy product that achieved a >79% predominance of total circulating T cells by 3 weeks post-infusion in this non-lymphodepleted recipient. Although the patient’s disease ultimately progressed, these findings demonstrate safety and proof of concept for an IL-7 treatment regimen for expansion of adoptively transferred T cells in vivo and induced memory differentiation in a heavily pretreated patient with refractory solid malignancy.