TY  - JOUR
A1  - Bremm, Melanie
A1  - Pfeffermann, Lisa-Marie
A1  - Cappel, Claudia
A1  - Katzki, Verena
A1  - Erben, Stephanie
A1  - Betz, Sibille
A1  - Quaiser, Andrea
A1  - Merker, Michael
A1  - Bönig, Halvard-Björn
A1  - Schmidt, Michael
A1  - Klingebiel, Thomas
A1  - Bader, Peter
A1  - Hünecke, Sabine
A1  - Rettinger, Eva
T1  - Improving clinical manufacturing of IL-15 activated cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells
T2  - Frontiers in immunology
N2  - Cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells are an immunotherapeutic approach to combat relapse following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) in acute leukemia or myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) patients. Prompt and sequential administration of escalating cell doses improves the efficacy of CIK cell therapy without exacerbating graft vs. host disease (GVHD). This study addresses manufacturing-related issues and aimed to develop a time-, personal- and cost-saving good manufacturing process (GMP)-compliant protocol for the generation of ready-for-use therapeutic CIK cell doses starting from one unstimulated donor-derived peripheral blood (PB) or leukocytapheresis (LP) products. Culture medium with or without the addition of either AB serum, fresh frozen plasma (FFP) or platelet lysate (PL) was used for culture. Fresh and cryopreserved CIK cells were compared regarding expansion rate, viability, phenotype, and ability to inhibit leukemia growth. Cell numbers increased by a median factor of 10-fold in the presence of FFP, PL, or AB serum, whereas cultivation in FFP/PL-free or AB serum-free medium failed to promote adequate CIK cell proliferation (p < 0.01) needed to provide clinical doses of 1 × 106 T cells/kG, 5 × 106 T cells/kG, 1 × 107 T cells/kG, and 1 × 108 T cells/kG recipient body weight. CIK cells consisting of T cells, T- natural killer (T-NK) cells and a minor fraction of NK cells were not significantly modified by different medium supplements. Moreover, neither cytotoxic potential against leukemic THP-1 cells nor cell activation shown by CD25 expression were significantly influenced. Moreover, overnight and long-term cryopreservation had no significant effect on the composition of CIK cells, their phenotype or cytotoxic potential. A viability of almost 93% (range: 89–96) and 89.3% (range: 84–94) was obtained after freeze-thawing procedure and long-term storage, respectively, whereas viability was 96% (range: 90-97) in fresh CIK cells. Altogether, GMP-complaint CIK cell generation from an unstimulated donor-derived PB or LP products was feasible. Introducing FFP, which is easily accessible, into CIK cell cultures was time- and cost-saving without loss of viability and potency in a 10-12 day batch culture. The feasibility of cryopreservation enabled storage and delivery of sequential highly effective ready-for-use CIK cell doses and therefore reduced the number of manufacturing cycles.
KW  - CIK cells
KW  - immunotherapy
KW  - allogeneic stem cell transplantation
KW  - cryopreservation
KW  - AB-serum
KW  - fresh frozen plasma
KW  - platelet lysate
Y1  - 2019
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/51067
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-510674
SN  - 1664-3224
N1  - Copyright © 2019 Bremm, Pfeffermann, Cappel, Katzki, Erben, Betz, Quaiser, Merker, Bonig, Schmidt, Klingebiel, Bader, Huenecke and Rettinger. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
VL  - 10
IS  - Art. 1218
SP  - 1
EP  - 12
PB  - Frontiers Media
CY  - Lausanne
ER  -