IL-7: a potential next-generation adjuvant for immune cell therapies.

Area of Science:

• Immunology
• Cell Therapy
• Oncology

Background:

• Cell-based immune therapies like CAR-T cells and TILs show promise but face challenges in durability and breadth of clinical benefit.
• Interleukin-7 (IL-7) is a cytokine known to enhance lymphocyte number and function.
• IL-7 has a history of clinical use in diverse settings, including hastening bone marrow recovery, reversing lymphopenia, treating malignancies, and boosting vaccine responses.

Purpose of the Study:

• To discuss how IL-7 can address key challenges limiting adoptive cell therapies.
• To highlight the potential of IL-7 as an adjuvant treatment in various cell-based immunotherapies.
• To advocate for expedited clinical testing of IL-7 in multiple settings.

Main Methods:

• Clinical experience and literature review of IL-7's use in patients.
• Analysis of IL-7's effects on T-cell number and function.
• Discussion of IL-7's application in conjunction with CAR-T cell therapy, checkpoint inhibitors, endogenous lymphocyte therapy, and in lymphopenic patients.

Main Results:

• IL-7 is generally well-tolerated and produces a durable increase in CD4 and CD8 T cells.
• Recent clinical applications demonstrate IL-7's utility in multiple myeloma, urothelial cancer, and COVID-19.
• IL-7 effectively addresses major limitations of current adoptive cell therapies.

Conclusions:

• IL-7 has the potential to significantly improve the efficacy and durability of cell-based immune therapies.
• The authors believe IL-7 will be a major advance as an adjuvant treatment in many cell therapies.
• Further clinical investigation and expedited testing of IL-7 are warranted across multiple settings.