BLOG > Publications & Citations > HIV-1-specific CAR-T cell activity enhanced by IL-15 and TGF-β modulation

Authors: Lamcaj S et al.
Source: J Virol 0:e00051-26.
We're delighted to share insights from a recent study entitled "Enhancing HIV-1-specific CAR-T cell functional activity by treatment with a novel cytokine-based scaffold with IL-15 superagonist and TGF-β-neutralizing activity" published in Journal of Virology by Sara Lamcaj et al.
They demonstrated that HCW9218, a bifunctional immunomodulatory protein composed of TGF-βRII and IL-15/IL-15Rα, blocks TGF-β activity and enhances duoCAR-T cell proliferation, cytotoxicity, and anti-HIV-1 activity in vitro. HCW9218 also functioned as a latency-reversing agent, stimulating HIV-1 production by CD4+ T cells from ART-suppressed PLWH, which was subsequently suppressed by co-culture with autologous duoCAR-T cells.
Congratulations to all the authors on this great article!
LentiBlast was used to transduce CD4+ and CD8+ T cells with the duoCAR lentiviral vector to generate the HIV-1-specific CAR-T cells used throughout the study.





