In alternative embodiments, provided are compositions, including recombinant expression systems and vectors, products of manufacture and kits, and methods, for remotely-controlled and non-invasive manipulation of intracellular nucleic acid expression, genetic processes, function and activity in live cells such as T cells in vivo, for example, activating, adding functions or changing or adding specificities for immune cells, for monitoring physiologic processes, for the correction of pathological processes and for the control of therapeutic outcomes. In alternative embodiments, provided are blue-light-mediated light-inducible nuclear translocation and dimerization (LINTAD) systems for gene regulation to control cell activation based on the integration of light-sensitive LOV2-based nuclear localization, light-induced active transportation via the biLINuS motif, and CRY2-CIB1 dimerization that feature high spatiotemporal control to control or alter cell activities in vivo, for example, to limit CAR T cell activity to the tumor site for immunotherapy applications.

The present disclosure relates to methods for enhancing the efficiency of therapies involving immune effector cells such as T cells engineered to express antigen receptors such as T cell receptors (TCRs) or chimeric antigen receptors (CARs). It is demonstrated herein that such antigen receptor-engineered immune effector cells, even when provided to a subject in sub-therapeutic amounts, are extremely effective in the treatment of cancer diseases, even those cancer diseases that are known to be difficult to treat with antigen receptor-engineered immune effector cells, such as solid tumors or cancers, if additionally target antigen for the antigen receptor is provided to the subject. Immune effector cells may be engineered ex vivo or in vitro and subsequently the immune effector cells may be administered to a subject in need of treatment, or immune effector cells may be engineered in vivo in a subject in need of treatment.

Provided is application of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-modified T (CART) cells in preparing drugs for cancer treatment, the CART cells contain an artificially-introduced costimulatory signal transduction domain, and the CART cell does not contain an artificially-introduced first signal transduction domain.

A method for producing natural killer cells is disclosed. The method comprises isolating peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from a blood sample; isolating at least one of CD56+ cells and/or CD3−/CD56+ cells from the PBMCs; and co-culturing the at least one of CD56+ cells and/or CD3−/CD56+ cells with a combination of feeder cells in the presence of a cytokine. The method can further comprise freezing and thawing the CD56+ cells and/or CD3−/CD56+ cells. A composition for treating cancer is also disclosed. The composition comprises the CD56+ natural killer cells produced by the disclosed method and a cytokine.

The present invention relates to a chimeric costimulatory antigen receptor (CoStAR) useful in adoptive cell therapy (ACT), and cells comprising the CoStAR. The CoStAR can act as a modulator of cellular activity enhancing responses to defined antigens. The present invention also provides CoStAR proteins, nucleic acids encoding the CoStAR and therapeutic uses thereof.

Disclosed are compositions and methods for ex vivo expansion of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes for use in adoptive cell therapy (ACT). Also disclosed are compositions and method for identifying an agent for ex vivo expansion of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes for use in ACT. Also disclosed are methods for treating cancer using tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes expanded by the disclosed methods.

Provided herein are methods and articles of manufacture for use with cell therapy for the treatment of diseases or conditions, e.g., cancer, including for predicting and treating a toxicity. In some embodiments, the toxicity is related to cytokine release syndrome (CRS). The methods generally involve assessing a change in a factor indicative of tumor burden prior to administration of a cell therapy in a subject that is associated with and/or correlate to a risk of developing toxicity. In some aspects, the methods can be used to determine if the subject is at risk or likely at risk for developing a toxicity following administration of the cell therapy. Also provided are methods for treating a subject having a disease or condition, in some cases involving administration of the cell therapy, based on assessment of risk of developing a toxicity following administration of the therapy. Also provided herein are reagents and kits for performing the methods.

Embodiments described herein relate to compositions including genetically modified CAR cells and uses thereof for treating cancer. Some embodiments of the present disclosure relate to compositions and methods for T cell response enhancement and/or CAR cell preparation. For example, a method may include obtaining cells comprising a CAR and culturing the cells in the presence of an agent that is recognized by the extracellular domain of the CAR.

A set of target peptides are presented by HLA A*0101, A*0201, A*0301, B*4402, B*2705, B*1402, and B*0702 on the surface of disease cells. They are envisioned to among other things (a) stimulate an immune response to the proliferative disease, e.g., cancer, (b) to function as immunotherapeutics in adoptive T cell therapy or as a vaccine, (c) facilitate antibody recognition of tumor boundaries in surgical pathology samples, (d) act as biomarkers for early detection and/or diagnosis of the disease, and (e) act as targets in the generation antibody-like molecules which recognize the target-peptide/MHC complex.

The disclosure features immune cell delivery lipid nanoparticle (LNP) compositions that allow for enhanced delivery of agents, e.g., nucleic acids, such as therapeutic and/or prophylactic RNAs, to immune cells, in particular T cells, as well as B cells, dendritic cells and monocytes. The LNPs comprise an effective amount of an immune cell delivery potentiating lipid such that delivery of an agent by an immune cell delivery LNP is enhanced as compared to an LNP lacking the immune cell delivery potentiating agent. Methods of using the immune cell delivery LNPs for delivery of agents, e.g., nucleic acid delivery, for protein expression, for modulating immune cell activity and modulating immune responses are also disclosed.