Patricia Perez Galan, Group Leader at IDIBAPS (Institut d’Investigacions Biomèdiques August Pi i Sunyer), shared on LinkedIn:
“Proud to share our latest publication in Blood!
CD70 Overexpression at Diagnosis Predicts Relapse and Supports Dual CD19-CD70 CAR-T Therapy in Follicular Lymphoma
Although first-line immunotherapy induces durable remissions in most patients with follicular lymphoma (FL), predicting relapse and developing more effective therapies remain major clinical challenges.
Using transcriptomics, digital pathology and functional analyses in a uniformly treated cohort of FL patients with more than 11 years of follow-up, we identified CD70 overexpression at diagnosis as a biomarker associated with relapse and inferior progression-free survival.
More importantly, our findings demonstrate that CD70 is not only a biomarker but also an actionable therapeutic target, opening new opportunities for biomarker-driven immunotherapy.
Building on these findings, we had the privilege of collaborating with Sonia Guedan and her outstanding team to develop a dual CD19-CD70 CAR-T cell, combining the academic ARI-0001 CD19 CAR-T with a CD27-based anti-CD70 CAR.
This strategy demonstrated enhanced antitumor activity in patient-derived lymphoma models and superior disease control in preclinical follicular lymphoma models, supporting its future clinical translation.
This study is a great example of how collaborative translational research can accelerate innovation. It has been a truly rewarding and fruitful collaboration with Sonia Guedan group, whose expertise in CAR-T cell engineering perfectly complemented our work on lymphoma biology and the tumor microenvironment. Working together, we were able to translate biological discoveries from patient samples into a promising next-generation immunotherapy.
A special congratulations to our co-first authors, Ferran Araujo-Ayala and , whose outstanding work, commitment and perseverance made this project possible.
We are also deeply grateful for the support of our funding agencies, particularly La Marató TV3 through a joint project with Carlos E. De Andrea who was instrumental for validating CD70 as a relapse biomarker. Moreover, a heart-felt acknowledgment to Mitchell Smith and the Follicular Lymphoma Foundation for their continuous support to develop this novel dual CAR-T and their translation to FL patients.
In this work four CIBERONC groups have been implicated. AGAUR supported Maria Ros. The Interreg POCTEFA programme through the THERAVLINFO Interreg POCTEFA project continues to strengthen cross-border collaborative research and innovation in lymphoma immunotherapy.
This work would not have been possible without the dedication of all our collaborators, clinicians, pathologists, researchers and, above all, the patients who participated in this study. Congratulations to all them!!”
Title: CD70 Overexpression at Diagnosis Predicts Relapse and supports dual CD19-CD70 CAR-T Therapy in Follicular Lymphoma
Authors: Ferran Araujo-Ayala, Maria Ros, Raluca Alexandru, Judith Mateos-Jaimez, Alba Rodríguez-Garcia, Marta Giménez-Alejandre, María Villalba-Esparza, Pablo Mozas, Guillem Colell, Salut Colell, Mireia Bachiller, Ferran Nadeu, Andrea Rivero, Ariadna Giro, Daniel J. Hodson, Soumya Poddar, Armando López-Guillermo, Dolors Colomer, Alba Maiques-Diaz, José-Ignacio Martín-Subero, Silvia Beà, Laura Magnano, Mitchell Reed Smith, Álvaro Urbano-Ispizua, Julio Delgado, Manel Juan, Elías Campo, Carlos E. De Andrea, Sonia Guedan, Patricia Pérez-Galán
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