Controlling gene expression is useful for many applications, but current methods often require external user inputs, such as the addition of a drug. We present an alternative approach using cell-autonomous triggers based on RNA stem loop structures in the 3' untranslated regions (UTRs) of mRNA. These stem loops are targeted by the RNA binding proteins Regnase-1 and Roquin-1, allowing us to program stimulation-induced transgene regulation in primary human T cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell dysfunction is a major barrier to achieving lasting remission in hematologic cancers, especially in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). We have shown previously that Δ133p53α, an endogenous isoform of the human TP53 gene, decreases in expression with age in human T cells, and that reconstitution of Δ133p53α in poorly functional T cells can rescue proliferation [A. M.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe seminal work by Kazimierczuk et al. [Nature 514, 343 (2014)10.1038/nature13832] has shown the existence of highly excited exciton states in a regime, where the correspondence principle is applicable and quantum mechanics turns into classical mechanics; however, any interpretation of exciton spectra based on a classical approach to excitons is still missing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSynthetic receptor signalling has the potential to endow adoptively transferred T cells with new functions that overcome major barriers in the treatment of solid tumours, including the need for conditioning chemotherapy. Here we designed chimeric receptors that have an orthogonal IL-2 receptor extracellular domain (ECD) fused with the intracellular domain (ICD) of receptors for common γ-chain (γ) cytokines IL-4, IL-7, IL-9 and IL-21 such that the orthogonal IL-2 cytokine elicits the corresponding γ cytokine signal. Of these, T cells that signal through the chimeric orthogonal IL-2Rβ-ECD-IL-9R-ICD (o9R) are distinguished by the concomitant activation of STAT1, STAT3 and STAT5 and assume characteristics of stem cell memory and effector T cells.
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