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Age-associated nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide decline drives CAR-T cell failure

Published inNature cancer
First online date2025-05-20
Abstract

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy is one of the most promising cancer treatments. However, different hurdles are limiting its application and efficacy. In this context, how aging influences CAR-T cell outcomes is largely unknown. Here we show that CAR-T cells generated from aged female mice present a mitochondrial dysfunction derived from nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) depletion that leads to poor stem-like properties and limited functionality in vivo. Moreover, human data analysis revealed that both age and NAD metabolism determine the responsiveness to CAR-T cell therapy. Targeting NAD pathways, we were able to recover the mitochondrial fitness and functionality of CAR-T cells derived from older adults. Altogether, our study demonstrates that aging is a limiting factor to successful CAR-T cell responses. Repairing metabolic and functional obstacles derived from age, such as NAD decline, is a promising strategy to improve current and future CAR-T cell therapies.

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Citation (ISO format)
HOPE, Helen Carrasco et al. Age-associated nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide decline drives CAR-T cell failure. In: Nature cancer, 2025. doi: 10.1038/s43018-025-00982-7
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Appendix - Reporting summary
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Supplemental data - Supplementary Table 1: Metabolomic raw data. Supplementary Table 2: Sequence for CD38 OE vector.
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Supplemental data - Source Data Fig. 1
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Additional URL for this publicationhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s43018-025-00982-7
Journal ISSN2662-1347
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Creation21/05/2025 06:32:48
First validation05/06/2025 09:16:12
Update05/06/2025 09:16:12
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