Reversing T Cell Exhaustion by Converting Membrane PD-1 to Its Soluble form in Jurkat Cells; Applying The CRISPR/Cas9 Exon Skipping Strategy.

Objective: T-cells express two functional forms of the programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1): membrane (mPD-1) and soluble (sPD-1). The binding of mPD-1 and its ligand (PD-L1) on tumor cells could lead activated lymphocytes toward exhaustion. Selective deletion of the transmembrane domain via alternative splicing of exon-3 in PD-1 mRNA could generate sPD-1.