Heike Daldrup-Link

CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) T-cell therapy has shown promising results in patients with leukemia and lymphoma. However, therapy response in patients with solid tumors is highly variable. An imaging test, which could directly visualize CAR T-cells in patients would greatly improve our understanding of factors that lead to successful treatment outcomes. Immune cells can be labeled with clinically translatable iron oxide nanoparticles, which can be detected with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). However, thus far, it was required to use transfection agents to shuttle iron labels into CAR T-cells. Most transfection agents are not approved for use in humans and demonstrate low efficiency for cell labeling with nanoparticles. We developed new cell labeling techniques, which do not require transfections. This project will test the efficacy of transfection-agent free cell labeling techniques for time-efficient labeling of CAR T-cells with iron oxide nanoparticles for subsequent in vivo tracking in mouse models of cancer. Tracking nanoparticle-labeled CAR T-cells in vivo will enable us to understand and optimize the tumor accumulation of CAR T-cells, prescribe tailored dosing regimen and develop appropriate combination therapies.