{"doi":"10.1101/2022.08.29.505735","title":"Dexamethasone Enhances CAR T Cell Persistence and Function by Upregulating Interleukin 7 Receptor","abstract":"Abstract Dexamethasone (dex) is a glucocorticoid that is a mainstay for treatment of inflammatory pathologies, including immunotherapy-associated toxicities. Dex suppresses the endogenous immune response and is also believed to suppress the function of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells. However, recent reports observed higher CAR T cell numbers in patients treated with dex, highlighting the rationale for interrogating the specific effects of dex on CAR T cells. Here, we found that dex did not inhibit CAR T cell expansion or function. A single dose of dex during the manufacturing process upregulated the pro-persistence interleukin 7 receptor α (IL7Rα) on CAR T cells and induced expression of genes involved in activation, migration, and persistence. The ex vivo upregulation of IL7Rα induced by dex significantly enhanced CAR T cell persistence and anti-tumor efficacy in vivo when combined with exogenous IL-7. Moreover, the combination of dex and IL-7 resulted in increased persistence of CAR T cells and led to complete remission of mice. Overall, our studies in both in vitro and in vivo treatment support a positive role of dex on CAR T cell potency and provide insight into the application of glucocorticoids in cellular anti-cancer therapy.","journal":"bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)","year":2022,"id":304154,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9437,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2022-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":451900,"name":"Ryan Urak","orcid":"0000-0001-5289-5000","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":996586,"name":"Ellie Taus","orcid":"0000-0002-0872-3890","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":996587,"name":"Hui-Ju Hsieh","orcid":"0000-0002-2583-7670","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":996588,"name":"Katherine Jin","orcid":"0000-0001-5824-601X","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":238235,"name":"Shu‐Hong Lin","orcid":"0000-0002-4020-7714","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":996589,"name":"Dennis Awuah","orcid":"0000-0002-4295-5599","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":457032,"name":"Vibhuti Vyas","orcid":"0000-0001-6771-5666","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":457033,"name":"Saul J. Priceman","orcid":"0000-0002-8136-2112","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":457036,"name":"Mary C. Clark","orcid":"0000-0003-1672-2684","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":249979,"name":"Stephen J. Forman","orcid":"0000-0002-2803-4152","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":289779,"name":"Xiuli Wang","orcid":"0000-0001-5964-4327","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":996585,"name":"Ashlie Munoz","orcid":"0000-0001-8468-5438","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":47,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T00:32:28.468841Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}