Integration of ζ-deficient CARs into the CD3-zeta gene conveys potent cytotoxicity in T and NK cells

• Integration of ζ-deficient CARs into CD3ζ gene allows generation of functional TCR-ablated CAR-T cells for allogeneic off-the-shelf use

• CD3ζ-editing platform allows CAR reprogramming of NK cells without affecting their canonical functions

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-redirected immune cells hold significant therapeutic potential for oncology, autoimmune diseases, transplant medicine, and infections. All approved CAR-T therapies rely on personalized manufacturing using undirected viral gene transfer, which results in non-physiological regulation of CAR-signaling and limits their accessibility due to logistical challenges, high costs and biosafety requirements. Random gene transfer modalities pose a risk of malignant transformation by insertional mutagenesis. Here, we propose a novel approach utilizing CRISPR-Cas gene editing to redirect T-cells and natural killer (NK) cells with CARs. By transferring shorter, truncated CAR-transgenes lacking a main activation domain into the human CD3ζ (CD247) gene, functional CAR fusion-genes are generated that exploit the endogenous CD3ζ gene as the CAR's activation domain. Repurposing this T/NK-cell lineage gene facilitated physiological regulation of CAR-expression and redirection of various immune cell types, including conventional T-cells, TCRγ/δ T-cells, regulatory T-cells, and NK-cells. In T-cells, CD3ζ in-frame fusion eliminated TCR surface expression, reducing the risk of graft-versus-host disease in allogeneic off-the-shelf settings. CD3ζ-CD19-CAR-T-cells exhibited comparable leukemia control to T cell receptor alpha constant (TRAC)-replaced and lentivirus-transduced CAR-T-cells in vivo. Tuning of CD3ζ-CAR-expression levels significantly improved the in vivo efficacy. Notably, CD3ζ gene editing enabled redirection of NK-cells without impairing their canonical functions. Thus, CD3ζ gene editing is a promising platform for the development of allogeneic off-the-shelf cell therapies using redirected killer lymphocytes.