Figure 5. Engineered hTERT_865-873-specific T-cells restrain human acute leukemia progression.

NOG mice were challenged with PBMCs isolated from two different HLA-A2⁺ B-ALL patients (B-ALL#1 and B-ALL#2). Mice were treated with 3 weekly ACTs of hTERT_865-873- or hHCV_1406-1415-specific T-cells, followed by IL-2 administration. A. Tumor progression was calculated evaluating circulating human B-cells. Mice where sacrificed when control mice showed around 80% of circulating malignant cells (red dotted line). B. IHC analysis of hCD20 expression in spleen, BM, liver and kidney (20X magnification). Only for BM (40X magnification), quantification was obtained by flow cytometric analysis. Data are mean ± SD. Statistical analysis was performed with Student's t test (n = 5 per group). C. Survival follow up of the remaining treated mice (B-ALL#1, hTERT n = 7, hHCV n = 5; B-ALL#2 hTERT n = 5, hHCV n = 4). Kaplan-Meier survival analysis: B-ALL#1, hTERT ACT vs. hHCV ACT: p = 0.001; B-ALL#2, hTERT ACT vs. hHCV ACT: p = 0.003.