Peripheral blood–derived PD-1/CD28–CD19-CAR–modified PD-1+ T-cell therapy in patients with solid tumors

T cells expressing PD-1 in the peripheral blood (PB) of patients with tumors possess therapeutic potential; however, the immunosuppressive, PD1-triggered signaling pathway and limited proliferative capacity of PD-1+ T cells present challenges to their therapeutic application. Here, we observed no discernible distinction between PD-1+ and PD-1– T cells in terms of clonal overlap. However, CD8+PD-1+ T cells from PB and tumor tissues exhibited tighter clustering based on clone size. Single-cell RNA sequencing analysis showed that PD-1+ T cells from PB highly expressed cytotoxicity-related genes and were enriched for T cell activation–related pathways compared with PD-1– T cells from PB or tumor tissues. Consistent with this, PB-derived PD-1+ T cells exhibited strong cytotoxicity towards autologous tumor cells and tumor cell lines. To augment PD-1+ T-cell activity against solid tumors in vivo, we introduced a PD-1/CD28 fusion receptor combined with a CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) into PD-1+ T cells, which were then expanded in vitro. The modified PD-1+ T cells exhibited superior proliferation and antitumor abilities in vitro. In addition, four patients with cancer were infused with autologous PD-1/CD28–CD19-CAR PD-1+ T cells. None of these patients experienced severe side effects and one patient with melanoma achieved a complete response that was maintained for 6.7 months. The three other patients had stable disease. Collectively, these results suggested that cell therapy with modified PB-derived PD-1+ T cells is both safe and effective, and it may constitute a promising treatment strategy for cancer patients.