Intraperitoneal programming of tailored CAR macrophages via mRNA-LNP to boost cancer immunotherapy

ABSTRACT Therapeutic strategies for peritoneal metastasis in solid tumors are urgently needed in the clinic. Programming chimeric antigen receptor macrophages (CAR-Ms) in situ offers opportunities for an unmet demand. However, potential intracellular domains (ICDs) for CAR design and their antitumor mechanisms for macrophage empowerment remain to be explored systematically. By developing a targeted mRNA-LNP delivery system for macrophages, we have investigated 36 CAR combinations to determine the impact of CAR-Ms on immune regulation in vitro and in vivo . In two solid tumor mouse models, intraperitoneal programming of CAR-Ms was shown to elicit robust adaptive immune activation and significantly synergize with PD-1/L1 therapy. Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) analysis revealed that CAR-Ms could reshape the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) and boost the TCF1 + PD-1 + progenitor- exhausted CD8 + T cells (Tpex) population. Meanwhile, we found that tailored CAR-M with CD3ζ/TLR4 ICDs could favorably maintain proinflammatory phenotype and simultaneously upregulate MHC I and PD-L1 expression by perturbing NF-κB pathways. Moreover, the synergism between macrophage PD-L1 knockdown and CAR-M therapy highlighted the need to block the PD-1/L1 axis in antigen cross-presentation. In short, we developed an mRNA-LNP delivery system for intraperitoneal programming of tailored CAR-Ms in vivo and broadened understanding of both regulatory and feedback mechanisms for CAR-M therapies against solid tumors.