AUTHOR=Li Weizhen , Zhou Yang , Wu Zhongen , Shi Yaoping , Tian Enming , Zhu Yingqi , Wang Tao , Dou Wei , Meng Xiangjing , Chen Ming , Zhai Bo , Zhu Di 

TITLE=Targeting Wnt Signaling in the Tumor Immune Microenvironment to Enhancing EpCAM CAR T-Cell therapy

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Pharmacology

VOLUME=12

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pharmacology/articles/10.3389/fphar.2021.724306

DOI=10.3389/fphar.2021.724306

ISSN=1663-9812

ABSTRACT=<p>Colorectal cancer (CRC) patients are still lacking viable treatments. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells have shown promise in hematologic malignancies, but their efficacy in solid tumors has been limited due to the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. We found that cancer antigen- EpCAM expression increased in the metastatic stage compared with the primary stage in cancers and the activation of Wnt and TGFβ pathways was positively correlated with EpCAM expression in multiple cancers, including colorectal cancer. We constructed CAR T cells targeting EpCAM that successfully showed selective cytotoxicity in highly EpCAM-expressing cancer cell lines. The combination of EpCAM CAR-T with the Wnt inhibitor-hsBCL9<sub>CT</sub>-24 displayed synergetic effect against EpCAM-positive colon cells <italic>in vitro</italic> and also <italic>in vivo</italic>. A mechanistic study showed that hsBCL9<sub>CT</sub>-24 treatment could modulate the tumor environment and improve infiltration of T cells, while possibly promoting the effector T cells at the early stages and postponing the exhaustion of CAR T cells at advanced stages. Overall, these results demonstrated that the combination of EpCAM CAR T-cell therapy with the Wnt inhibitor can overcome the limitations of CAR T cells in treating solid tumors.</p>